The Sect
by Kriftonucci
Summary: A secret organization of gamers sets out to spread chaos in their field. As the only surviving former members, it's up to Susie and Calvin to shut it down.
1. Prologue: Making a Scene at the Crime

The Sect

By Kriftonucci

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**Prologue: Making a Scene at the Crime**

"That wasn't such a bad flick" said Denise, who was on the front seat next to the one driving, Steve.

"I knew you'd like it, it's Martin Scorsese's favorite after all" he replied.

"But who would've expected the mystery object to be that?"

"Neither did I. Usually, it's all about efficient gimmicks for this guy when it comes to storytelling; He has a penchant for this like in his other films"

"Yeah right. I've heard his other films, The Departed had an unbelievable screenplay."

"I know, but he sort of rushed it with this one. Almost as if he's expecting a lawsuit from Leone any time sooner"

"You mean Sergio?"

"Who else? With the exception of that one religious aspect, I think he's just a Xerox of his movies"

"Yeah, only how can you get sued by someone long dead since the eighties?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"Not unless you're willing to answer it with something absurd like zombies" Replied Denise. It seemed Steve at long last made it to the pinpoint of this conversation.

"Oh no Denise" said Steve. He noticed the cul-de-sac was a few yards away. An unpleasant thought manifested him once he finished the reply.

"I know the dead can't…talk…"

Denise could usually smell fear or worry around Peter, now she didn't have the audacity to judge Steve enough to assume he might be on the verge of becoming a worrywart too.

Steve parked parallel to the sidewalk of her house. As he came out of his door, that same expression of discontent grew strong enough to close his eyes for a brief second. But he knew he needed to see Denise in order to perform one final task.

"Okay Denise, here's your place" said Steve grimly, after opening the other door and guiding Denise right out of the car. This was the last action she was aware of before questioning the awkward reaction.

"All righty then" Denise replied, insensible to anything Steve did, even in the dark as he reached inside his pocket "…so…aren't you going to help me in?"

Rather than replying, or even kissing her goodnight, Steve only stared at the perfectly blank index card he held. Nothing was written on it at that time of night, so one could ask why Steve looked at it with infinite dismay.

"Steve?...are you okay? Why can't you speak?" asked Denise.

The reaction almost made his emotions shrivel up. If Denise could see his face for just the second, she too would seem severely hurt.

Knowing what he was doing, Steve took hold of Denise's hands. And before a reply came, he gently, though quickly, wedged the piece of paper in her palm before running back to his car and pressing the ignition.

Soon, Denise heard Steve's car running and turned a shock face.

"WAIT, STEVE!" Denise yelled; right when it was too late as the car became part of the dark mist that was invisible to those unfamiliar with nighttime. "GASP!"

By now, Denise might've been worried to know she was alone and uncertain of whether Steve really did park next to her house or not, this in the response to having taken a guess at Steve's sudden silence.

All she could do was decipher this puzzle with whatever clue, in this case, the card, seemed to linger around. She assumed she wasn't going to be anymore shocked than she'd already been before holding the card.

Even after realizing its surface was written in a language only her kind could understand: Braille.

Reading it out loud still made little difference on whether she understood it or not.

"I-M S-O-R-R-Y , D-E-N-I-S-E,..." she began "T-H-E-Y H-A-D… M-Y…. F-A…"

Before she continued, Denise heard a noise. One so distant, she assumed it might've been footsteps, nothing more.

"… M-Y…. F-A…M-…"

If Denise didn't know any better, she'd say she was scared. Whether it was the distraction from a distance or the letter's enigma, it was all trying to stop her from focusing. Even for the blind, her current habitat couldn't be any dodgier. All she could do was fall in disgust at the last letters of that same note.

"-M-I-L-Y".

The whole thing didn't make sense put together. "I'm sorry Denise, they had my family" She wasn't any more confused now than she had been before. If she tried thinking about it, maybe another clue would come.

And it did, taking an arbitrary blow to the noggin that enlarged her face with a stare that appeared frozen at first and stayed that way.

Seconds later, a gunshot was heard by everyone within the mile in width's neighborhood. Her head hit the cold hard pavement, mixing a silhouette with dim blood.

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_Many days before..._

Darkness overcame anything whenever light is never around, even for someone with an owl's eye. Whenever the case, nobody knows how to react to it as emotionally prepared as they may get, which is why sadly, it usually comes down to genes for those who are able to overcoming the challenge. That or someone with enough vigor, like member A75, to make believe they can proceed and ignore their instincts for a few seconds. This he proved almost modestly as he entered the shallow room, one with enough darkness to leave someone in nighttime forever. Indeed, A75 abandoned fear in place of his humor as a way of fisting the doubts towards safety this area occupied.

After all, he knew what he was doing; he took for granted the mistakes most would forget just so they could cheaply ignore their suspicions. There was never a banana peel he stepped on without seeing it first. Only the Boss' subordinate, a hooded figure carrying a M21 rifle, followed him like he was a prisoner, which he was to the eyes of those behind him as they found no need of fear for the using. Neither did A75, only he wasn't a coward who thought that not taking one wasn't the biggest risk.

"Here we are, ex member!" grunted the subordinate, under its shaded darkness and apparent voice scrambler. It wasn't the only one; everyone within the Bilk Division's premises was to look both like the subordinate and A75, with the exception of the rifle as special members and subordinates qualified for.

"Am I going in time out now or do you plan on explaining squat to me?" A75 asked, testing the subordinate's acumen with his tone.

"Silence, pawn! Your pathetic enmity won't help you understand the situation you've lead yourself into, now listen!" said the subordinate, as angrily as it shut the door behind itself. It was all up to the beam of rectangular shaped flash detected the minute the door forebode anymore light to knock some clues into A75´s pickle.

"The television you see before you was first issued in 1985, almost two decades ago basically" It began, pointing at the television written "Zenith" as below as A75 could distinguish. "Since this clan came to order, no other TV has been used to practice the afflict other than the one given to us by our founder, Joe Martin Vasquez, rest in peace"

A75 could tell this subordinate was fruitlessly trying to impose fear on him if darkness wasn't doing a very good job. Not for what it'd said, but for what it was about to reveal.

"You remember your sacrament of membership, don't you?"

"I'd have amnesia by saying I didn't"

"Then you know what must be done above all prerequisites to gain entrance"

"Who here doesn't, it's just…playing around with a joystick, reviving childhood in my words"

"Video games were to us as pawns were to this company, meaning I might be talking to the next "Earthbound 64" if he wasn't here"

"Am I flattered? They make stories based on our country just to keep them away from it, right? I feel your pain"

"Sit your ass down in that chair and heed this advice!" said the subordinate, calmer than before. For that, A75 could detect a hostility slowly dying within its assertion, replacing it with the same humor he was using.

The subordinate took no time off in pointing at the chair next to the Zenith TV with its rifle. A75 sat as the subordinate followed whilst continuing its homily.

"Advice?" he asked. "I thought it was tea, and what advice?"

"When you requested to leave the Bilk Division for good, you thought we'd take "yes" for an answer, even that easily. As skilled as you were, foolishness still seemed to dominate your mind quite well if you thought it helped consulting the high Boss up and personal."

"Most members who'd wish to leave know better than to fiddle with the idea, most who've tried did it outside the area. If anything, you're quite the brave for refusing to escape just to end up with grizzly results"

A75 knew what the subordinate was talking about. It was easier to join than it was to leave, especially when they attached piercing-like tracking devices to your arms which either exploded or released a toxic chemical into one's bloodstream assuming anyone tried confiscating it from its place.

That's how most of his short-lived comrades perished as the society he was in demonstrated no mercy whatsoever, whilst refusing to cease its growth. And yet, that's still what A75 loved the most about these schemes: the thrills.

"So if you're not letting me go, why send me to this rathole?" asked A75.

"Unlike those fallen members, or the word "Oblivious", its people like you who are uncommon in these stories nowadays. Bringing up the real purpose why you're in this torture chamber" the subordinate began, nearly flinching when witnessing A75 didn't.

"Since there's still a chance you'll fail, here's a story that until now was classified. For an unknown cause, the Boss has considered retirement lately and sought you as the only member capable of filling in the Boss' shoes if it meant sparing life. The Boss has eyed great skill in you when hacking some of the more endearing titles such as "Knights of the old republic" and "Half-life" which was once deemed impossible even for those inhabiting outside the continent. The shame that remains is to see you were even worthy enough to beat The Boss to the idea of retirement, not to The Boss' benefit of course"

"Like I mentioned earlier, not many members have the diligence to request bail from anything, without assuming they'd get it. What I'm trying to get across is this"

The subordinate pointed its rifle towards the television.

"The game you'll be playing, pun or no pun, is rainbow six 3, at the final level. By winning, you'll be given another chance to keep your association with us, in other words, your foolishness will be forgiven." said the subordinate.

"By losing, on the other…hand…heh hehe…"

The subordinate flipped a switch on the table, where the television rested. A75 kept pretending he wasn't the least bit frightened. All the fear his face was supposed to exhibit immediately converted itself to the fastest heart rate ever for him if it meant only his insides could sense that very emotion. For the most part, A75 final knew what it felt like to inhibit a horror movie, where death was your worst enemy and you could no longer doubt your submission.

Severed hands, holding video game controllers, mounted by the dozens in the same way as poached animal trophies, stretched endlessly across the darkness that the flickering light bulb couldn't reveal due to the room's actual size. Each one with a plaque of an anonymous name, A75 didn't have the chance to read after the subordinate switched it back off.

He did, however, manage to spot some grisly stains of blood splattered across the floor. Some which were new enough to attract a few flies.

"Deep down, nobody wants to die, especially not someone your age, their whole young potential ahead of them, and with skill and talent to match. Arrogance cost you, I know, but if the Boss doesn't want you to inherit the Boss' throne anymore, there's always a commendable subordinate's position, trust me" the subordinate added, slightly lowering its weapon to emphasize on the magnitude of its gravity.

It still wasn't enough to keep A75 on guard even after that nearly traumatizing display of deceased members' hands. He didn't think thirteen was too young of an age to die, especially since he alone was two years older.

"I'll trust, but I've only heard of it, I've never actually played any of the Tom Clancy games before" said A75.

The subordinate seemed to echo A75's humor as a way of motivating him for the challenge; it was better this way as it had been a while since it ever executed someone like this. Assuming, that was, A75 wasn't going to win, an uncertainty not even the subordinate itself felt like gleefully underestimating.

"They're far easier than anything you've played before, now start!"

It didn't know it, but the subordinate had quite enough in common with A75 than it would ever find out. The ability for surprising would've been gallingly speechless as the subordinate also kept its appall bottled up like a bee ready to sting vengeance on its captor. It even felt like asking A75 if that was really a true failure, but releasing it so was not part of its job.

At the end of the hour, A75 let his guard slip and fell into bedlam.

"Ooooh, so close, but game over" said the subordinate in jest.

"I know" replied A75 as he evenly waited for the wrist guillotine. The subordinates always saved it in an invisible-thanks-to-the-darkness drawer near the corner. For most of them, it would've been a ride down Thrillsville to assassinate a rebellious member like this as the taste of their regrets that went along with their suffering was more exciting than disposing of them with as much imagination as Lee Harvey _Oswald_.

Not for this subordinate, however. Its only concern blockading the deserved thrills was an answer it didn't need yet really wanted more than usual.

"I have to know" said the subordinate after finally laying the sharp mechanism next to A75. "Was that really a slip at the unluckily last minute…or did you…well, did you…choose to lose?"

The stuttering which barely came apparent to A75's ears pleased him enough to over fake the tranquil tone in his reply.

"Your job is to kill me, not socialize with prisoners" replied A75 " But since you're so superficial, if you were familiar with my record, you'd learn I have no history resembling the lose of any game, even ones I've played as a first. When it's about strategies, both sides of my mind don't work without one helping the other to the point preparation alone becomes a luxury. I'm always careful, that's what makes me the more successful black sheep of the herd"

"Martyrdom, now that's a different subject unrelated to history. This death cult you all pass off for a "division" has been nothing more than an itch on my back for a long time now. You think me, or better yet, ANYONE with an ounce of sanity can live with that? When I said I wanted to quit, I was all set to take any option that'd come my way…even death! So to make it pointy, yes, I lost on purpose."

"Oh how heroic! I'm so touched!" the subordinate immediately replied. "Touched enough to make me forget this is sarcasm!"

A75 released a chuckle before laying his wrist on the guillotine's space reserved for it. The way A75 felt it, either everyone was afraid of death or no one was afraid of anything.

"Ah the inevitable naivety, premature humanity as I'd like to call it" said the subordinate, laying its hands on the lunette's whole, ready to lock it. "Any final requests before we slash your wrists for you, Mr. Emo?"

"Unless you've seen the faces of members you've killed, nah, I'm good." said A75, worry-free as could be.

The subordinate never thought it was already intriguing to know A75 lost on purpose. Now, for the first time, it sensed an overcoming intellect from this one victim, or one to match its own.

"Why?" It asked, releasing the lunette so as to avoid closing its wrists shut yet. "Are you implying you want me to see your face, divulge your identity, before executing you?"

"If it's not a lot to ask for, only if you can" replied A75, with a tone insinuating he was actually waiting for this to happen.

So the subordinate effortlessly shrugged and did what was requested, coming close to A75. After simply removing both the hood and the voice scrambler, it seemed only the mask was left. Usually, it was against protocols for any member, high degree or normal degree, to see this. If they ever died, only the Boss was permitted to know their identities.

The subordinate never found it threatening in a dark room, and even more from a member like A75, who was one of two of the Boss' favorites. The second being one the subordinate would remember after getting this over with.

"I can't say I'm delighted, your identity will seem to get me one way" said the subordinate as it glanced into the eyeholes of that same, creepy robotic skull shaped masked A75 wore.

"I'm not counting on it" said A75 before feeling the subordinate's hands confiscate its facial shell.

After it came off, A75 was certain he didn't need to.

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_It's hard to believe I had the raw cohunes to submit this fanfiction without even warning myself. It's been literally almost a year since I've been writing this whole damn thing, more than two years since I've had the idea in mind and almost three fucking years since I actually presented a story! The worst part is that I wasn't even done with it. I mean I finished the dialogue and at least a few of the chapters, but who really knows? This story has just been on my perilously last nerve since I conjugated it! Now here it is without any shame!_

_Please stick around as I will continue this and further my explanation on how I managed to write so much!_


	2. Chapter 1: One Stone Misses Second Bird

**Chapter 1: One Stone Misses Second Bird**

The sun shone a potent light upon the new day, passing through everyone who was both ready to wake up and forget about true kowtowing. It also covered everything else; becoming a glimmering reflection upon the newly formed dew on each strand of grass, illuminating the corroded rooftops of each house and providing new purpose for anyone looking for such after their old one failed them by a month.

It was a good reason for anyone who wanted to wake up once and for all, without Marcus' alarm doing such a good job. Notthe noise that banned it, rather than the weak material that came apart after he crushed the clock.

Both ways, he knew breakfast was the time, and so was nine thirty. His cereal was the least of his worries, as it also meant something else for him. Something that was supposed to be a big deal but it took someone else to remind him of the magnitude. This thing wasn't going to be that big of a deal until the phone rang and he picked it up. It wasn't as if any of his four sisters were awake enough to get it first.

"Hello" muttered Marcus, although not loud enough for the person calling him to hear.

"I don't know about you Marcus, but… _The day has come for all us sinners, if you're not a servant, you'll be struck to the ground! Flee the burning, greedy city, lookin' back on her to see there's nothing around_!"

"Dude, what the hell is that for?"

"What the HELL is THAT for? Your ignorance is blasphemy by knowing NOT what today stands for, puny mortal!"

"…Oh yeah, isn't today-?"

"The summoning every single knowledge conceivable, the prophets are shining down on us and our insensible trivialities, so REPENT! And bow down to the almightiness that is…RIVIABLO: REALMS OF REQUIEM My good brother! The trailer will reveal to us all: the sequel destined to change the gaming world the same way TC changed the world of warfare" Jason preached with everlasting bombast.

"TC Mac? I didn't know his fame had gone overseas and reached the States."

"TC who? I'm talking "Tom Clancy"! Riviablo's graphics makes any Rainbow six visual look like a v game's movie!"

"Ah! Now I see, so when´s it begin?"

"T minus fifteen hours! Be ready or your ass is grass! You mark my words, Marcus? Be ready…"

"Sure thing"

"By the way, Killswitch Engage is in town, want an extra ticket?"

"I'm good!"

Marcus hung up. That entire obsession Jason had conferred upon his conviction deserved a sigh, even if Marcus had labeled his own affinity for video games a lost cause. Marcus himself used to remain that undeveloped, until he turned eleven.

Now he was twelve, but it was all tolerable compared to anything his sisters might've had in store.

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As the rest of the day went by, Marcus took up other things like the usual bike ride through a couple of streets while Jason waltzed through more than a dozen video game stores to firsthand reserve his copy of the game. Other times, he just wanted to stare at a life-sized cardboard cutout of the characters until the owners kicked him out, even as he was merely looking through the outside glass.

Marcuse acknowledged his free time in a way he could only wish Jason could. Especially at night, when there lingered but ten minutes until the trailer would start. This would give him enough time to give a quick glance through a little cul-de-sac, where some interesting lights seemed to spawn from a quarter a mile away.

Crowds of people, mostly children, gathered around standing five feet away from an ambulance, police cars, and one peculiar looking Buick. Marcus had seen this happen before, when some kids would call it a hissy fit.

This was different, considering it was focused on the second house on the left rather than the entire neighborhood. He wouldn't usually allow curiosity to get to him if he was still destined to join Jason on his scrutiny of the event of the century. In fact, Jason was already sitting nearly motionless on the couch, waiting for Marcus' phone call.

But if this place wasn't so familiar to him, maybe he would've thought twice. Marcus knew what this place was on the many occasions he and Jason had spied on Peter. Now all he could do was ask one of the kids standing away from the place what the situation had to do with it.

"Excuse me, um, what's going on around here?" Marcus asked, tugging a bald kid's yellow shirt with black zigzags.

"Beats me, I was just playing checkers when a loud bang woke me up. Next thing you know, sirens were all over the place, thinking someone might've gotten hurt next to that house" Replied the kid, pointing at the abode swarming with attention.

Marcus could tell the kid was like the others: he seemed to be minding his own business at the time.

"Hey, don't you come from somewhere outside of the neighborhood?" asked Charlie Brown.

"North Elm street"

"No kidding, you heard it from all the way there?"

"The blinking lights caught my attention."

"Good grief, that's still pretty far"

"Should be heading back now, three minutes more and the event of the century, as my friend calls it, will…"

An aftermath like this didn't have any grizzly details like any other. Not until Marcus distracted his vision from the kid and aimed it at two parents' painful crying, standing on what he'd just realized was the chalk outline of a murdered victim.

Marcus looked closely at the outline, his eyes enlarging as he came to the conclusion of who it was.

"No….what happened to her?"

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Jason knew the trailer was but two minutes away from starting. In fact, it was the last thing on his mind, distracted by the position he was sitting, the channel he was glued on and other technicalities forcing him to ensure there would be no flaw to this.

"Dammit Marcus, hurry up! I can't wait anymore, not for Riviablo's sake, where are you?" he yelled to himself as he tried not to stare at the clock reading "11:28" while knowing it would bounce a minute when he'd least expect it.

Hearing the thought speak to him, however, made Jason's anxiety grow. They were the mosquito bites of his expectations that looking at the clock were like scratching them, even to the degree of forming a wound of some kind.

He already waited six months for an event like this, waiting six more minutes was like reliving the experience. Each minute as a thousand thoughts come back to haunt him, assumptions the game might reveal a few plot threads he had already deduced himself.

Jason's hand inexplicably reached the phone a millisecond before it rang, just as the minute turned up.

"Marcus, lest you decided to stay home and watch the trailer alone, which is the safest guess I can make up to lighten the mood, I promise, I swear, I avow that I am going to assassinate you in cold, cold blood." said Jason as he simultaneously turned on the TV set.

The commercials G4 was displaying were still putting the trailer on hold. Either way the TV screen's suspenseful absorption kept him going.

This wasn't the type of situation Marcus felt like waiting for when Jason would actually reply.

"Jason…listen…does your brother know yet?" asked Marcus, somehow getting Jason's attention. Jason wouldn't be concerned when Marcus was still on his way home if it meant balancing two thoughts per second.

"What about my brother? He's asleep like everyone else in this helpless house, who cares?" replied Jason, who attempted to lower the volume but pressed the channel button by mistake. "I did not turn my back on puberty for this, Marcus, you tell me what's falling you behind this instant!"

"Well… something bad just happened…really bad…and I mean HORRIBLE! Hell, this is tragic stuff!" said Marcus. His pause was to determine if Jason was apt to reply or remain fastened to the trailer by itself. Attention didn't matter if he was at least taking note of his voice.

"You remember his girlfriend? The one with…" Marcus was on the verge of proceeding until he veered at the clock.

"Huh?" Asked Marcus, upon noticing what his watch had given him: 11:32. Assuming it was as short as a teaser, the trailer would've completed its run by now.

"Oh God! I forgot about the trailer! I'm really sorry Jason…" said Marcus, knowing the pain of robbing someone of that moment.

"…Look Jason, I know this was extremely important to you, but listen…your brother's girlfriend…"

Once again, Marcus was interrupted by another inexplicable comment that which Jason nearly lacked sense in sharing. Only this time, it told Marcus how personal it was in reality.

A cold chill went down Marcus' spine, stronger than the one after he first became aware. All he could do was whisper a futile reply too low for anyone who wasn't on the phone to hear. As much as he knew it wouldn't help asking, it was too late anyhow. Marcus could only wait for a reply.

More than half a minute passed before he heard Jason hang up. It now meant he could use his cell for another reason, one which didn't require the presence of anyone. Marcuse typed another number in a flash, expecting their own reply in no less than a quarter of a minute.

And it came, through the deepest whisper even Darth Vader could envy.

"Confirm your identity"

"Member A11, Permission to communicate with the High Boss"

"Permission denied without proper address"

"Oh right, my apologies…erm…code 11 RB2U"

"Affirmitive, hold…"

It was night and Marcus could only stand for a few seconds in the darkness. Fear wasn't a reason, if he had it, rather than his parents' concern about his curfew. All he had to distract them were a bunch of pillows and a wig to place under the covers.

Upon paying less attention to the crickets' chirps and the barking dogs near and far, Marcus had his excitement to worry about most. The excitement alone was so significant, he'd forgotten if it had to do with the news he was going to deliver, or the sole idea of hearing the boss talk to him.

The only messages he'd ever received, like most members, were texts no longer than half a sentence. He, however, had received an order almost the size of a paragraph. It was both a big deal as it was an honor for anyone within the Bilk Division.

Marcus was honestly feeling excited, the kind one could spare a calm behavior for.

A jiffy kept it all unique until he saw a shadow walk off. It was far and running too fast for him to know purely who it was. All he could deduce was the face.

"Jason?..." asked Marcus, before another voice brought him back to his circumstances.

"Member A11, what news do you bare?"

"Oh…well…The job you assigned for my mission…to distract him…"

"Correct?"

"…The…the task has been accomplished…sir, I mean Boss!"

"Ah…is he taking it lightly?"

"No…not in the slightest bit…Boss"

Marcus was not proud of himself right now. As a member, confronting the boss' sole voice was one of the rarest privileges only the most skilled members could ever get in on, the same way a citizen were to approach royalty if not better. Although Marcus could say he succeeded the mission, his skills in diplomacy were to laugh at.

But now, he knew what the big deal really was, even if he never paid attention to it when focused on Jason.

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_And thar she blows! The First Chapter of this story which will lead up to so many threads soon enough (or not, just to keep it unspoiled). Don't worry, later on chapters will explain everything little by little. But for now, enjoy your imagination._


	3. Chapter 2: Old Arrival

**Chapter 2: Old Arrival**

"Sigh, Fuck this shitty report, man, fuck it! Fuck it and all who dare go forth before it!" said the lone Jeremy Duncan as he read some of the files lying on his desk. Even for the start of a weekend, this was going to be another Friday night he'd spend solving the proper documentation of each mechanism, and the worst part was it was only five o clock.

He ordered his papers into three piles: one for the prototype blueprint draft, one for the categorized instructions he was supposed to finish even if he ignored them for now, and the last one for the supposedly obsolete belongings he'd already taken note of.

He promised himself it was going to feel easier this way. Or else there'd be sleepless nights for him from now on. Making this was more than he could juggle as much as he loved the subject he'd worked nearly all his life with. Nearly due to the failed propositions he'd made himself in his mid-teens to become a rock star or marry his somewhat distant ex girlfriend, Sara Toomey.

Now, 21 years old, all he cared about was looking for a method on persuading himself to take a break.

"That's all the straws I've got" said Jeremy as he looked through his windowsill. Living in an urban neighborhood had a sunny advantage other than standing a few blocks away from his institute."I'm not wasting this pure, awesome day rotting in here! When will I get a chance like this again?"

Jeremy heeded his own sentence and ran down the stairs. He locked his apartment's door before taking a deep breath of the outdoors.

"Now THIS is what I call a reward, just LOOK at this!" Jeremy told himself, acknowledging every inch of pavement he could walk across. "I could sing and dance and run around, if anyone wasn't watching, or at least if it wasn't lame!"

There were trees planted on each doorstep, the chickadees chirping away what was left of the season, the ring of a passing bicycler's bell. Jeremy could look at everything that was colorful, turning his head and sucking it all in.

Just as he scanned the area with additional fervor, Jeremy almost spotted an unidentified figure within a shadowy alley. The second glance wasn't like the first, which almost took the form of a hooded person. The second time it was null, a mere space.

Jeremy shrugged before heading his way towards the Seven-eleven.

"Oh ho ho, as if the Bushmaster didn't make the cut this season!" Jeremy chuckled to himself as he read an issue of "Tactical Operator". In a store as fairly sized as this one, Jeremy knew there was no point in lingering for more than the time he needed. He took a couple of bottles of Second Primo Java knowing this, when he also noticed someone walk inside the store.

The hood he was wearing fed Jeremy a pinch of alarm. Lasting for the same amount of time the guy had it on before removing it. Jeremy walked towards the counter, now that his relief guaranteed him that so-called risk was only an illusion.

"Hey Hector" said Jeremy as he laid the magazine and the bottle down.

"Tsup, Jeremy?" replied Jeremy's oldest friend, as he scanned each item. "I'm guessing another harsh weekend?"

"Not this time. It's not schoolwork I have on my mind" said Jeremy, reaching for the change in one of his pockets "All I need is help modifying one of my special projects. So far, I think I'm doing a neat job by myself"

"Do tell, I figured you were in an extensive summer course, even though this much coffee wouldn't have cut it for a final. That'll be nine fifty, please" said Hector as he stored the products all into a bag.

"Believe me; I've paid my dues with all that ruthless crap in high school! Never again will I have to…" said Jeremy, when his explanation was cut short by the reflection in the store's security camera: two figures. The first was the hooded guy without the piece of clothing covering his face within the store, reading a product's Nutrition Facts.

The second was also wearing the hood, but stood outside.

"So, are you going to pay for that now, Jeremy?" asked Hector as Jeremy turned around to notice the same figure's quick disappearance. "And are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, here" said Jeremy as he hurriedly handed Hector the amount and took the bag before walking out.

"Wasn't there sun a second ago?" Jeremy asked himself, aware of the twilight's dimming presence. "Awkward and scary at the same time? HOW?"

Jeremy ignored his own suspicion and the noise behind him in exchange for remaining at ease upon this evolving quandary. His own issues had to do with finishing as much as he could with that project and nothing more. He reached for his keys as he came but a few feet closer to walking across the stairs towards his apartment.

Jeremy opened the door, around the same clap that something small but loud tumbled next to him. Jeremy almost cringed before closing up into the darkness to take a better look at the fallen shadow. It was nevertheless difficult to see in this quality of darkness, so Jeremy jumped the shark and reached for it slowly.

He immediately felt its solid mechanical surface and sighed just as much when he grabbed it entirely. If Jeremy had to play charades in the dark, he'd suppose it was a voice scrambler and a hefty mask.

"Now that's just cheesy" Jeremy sniggered in a whisper, only to call it redundant once he thought of something grim. "Unless…"

He continued staring at the items with an identical glare that only changed once he came inside his apartment and shut the door with locks and all before flashing the lights on. They still didn't look like anything new, yet Jeremy still studied every side until he found an area that screamed familiar.

"That insignia" He told himself, touching a symbol on the voice scrambler before turning his back from the door. "Is this?... WHAT THE?"

Jeremy screamed like a guy who came face to face with a hooded stalker that successfully sneaked into his house. After all these hours, Jeremy knew what underestimation cost him for pretending the impervious past wouldn't find its way into the present. That same hooded figure didn't make a move until Jeremy went first.

"WHAT DO YOU GUYS WANT WITH ME?" Bellowed Jeremy, backing up to the door before the somewhat smaller figure came up to him. "I THOUGHT I DESTROYED THAT TRACKING DEVICE! I DID EVERYTHING I COULD, SO WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

The figure ceased motion forward at half a foot away from Jeremy to bestow him her identity once she was close enough.

Gasping, Jeremy didn't know whether it was instinct, an epiphany, or wonderfully natural recognition of her face that brought him to picture it after almost a lifetime of carrying on without her existence.

"Where's Calvin?" she asked.

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Jeremy's speechlessness was all he had, albeit only long enough to really need it for a presence that came of no surprise without familiarity whatsoever.

By taking away the hood, her face resembled a lost teenager that might've found her way through the curb. Her hair was ink black with no split ends, her eyes were dark brown, and it was nearly assumable that the rest of her skin which wasn't concealed by clothing would sport tan lines.

"Okay… so you showed your face… maybe there's a chance persé we're both in trouble now" Replied Jeremy, dizzy from the sole confusion of the situation he was now in. "Just why do you want to know about Calvin, and who are you?"

"First off, my name is Susie, pleasure to meet you" said Susie as she reached for Jeremy's hand to shake it.

"I'm Jeremy, pleasure's mine too" replied Jeremy, who slid away from the grip "I don't know much except by appearances, but are you from the sect?"

Susie squandered his conviction with a smirk reply against the phrase. She'd almost forgotten what warm contact between innocent civilians felt like.

"What "sect?" is that what you lambs are calling it now? The "Sect"? We expected a little more craftsmanship from the few living survivors of our clan, you guys escaped with your lives in case you didn't know" replied Susie, allowing her entire cloak to fall off and flee from ache as she walked towards the living room.

Her clothing was even more battered than the article she wore above it, as if a hobo might've chosen her garments. Jeremy followed her, up until he saw how she examined some of the picture frames standing on his furnishings.

"Wait, you ARE going to pick up…" said Jeremy as he pointed back to the hall and the clothes left behind. He was interrupted by her grasp on one of the frames before she returned her glare onto him.

"Who's this?" asked Susie. She pointed directly at the kid standing by Jeremy's side.

"So you ARE from the sect" replied Jeremy, crossing his arms.

"Tell me all you know about Calvin and I might just tell you about myself" said Susie as she placed the photo of Calvin and Jeremy back down.

Jeremy had gone speculating once on whether this might've happened, which was why he never prepared for it.

"Wait, wait, wait a minute, dude!" began Jeremy, never conscious of how little time he gave to think about that question. "How do I know you're not here to apprehend me?"

"Do you honestly believe I'm in the right attire, or company to even hold that board? Of course you don't, Calvin must've cared less on mentioning that side of the coin" replied Susie, looking back at the articles of clothing she'd left in the trivial hallway.

"No, but…" replied Jeremy, speechless as a person who'd forgotten the most important piece of information essential at the last minute. "How do you know Calvin?"

Susie smiled back playfully, leaving Jeremy in the dirt within the situation.

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" replied Susie. This left Jeremy silent in mind as well; enough to let Susie interrupt him by spontaneously strolling past him. "I'll return when your resentments are healed"

She could be leaving for all he knew. At this point, Jeremy figured prejudice didn't have to be the answer to calming down his possible dread. He didn't even know who Susie was, or at least enough of her by now.

"Wait!" shrieked Jeremy, in the wake of thought.

Susie stopped on her tracks only after picking her cloak back up. She allowed Jeremy a good ten seconds to speak his view.

"It was hard enough dealing with one affiliate; Calvin told me he was practically torn apart within that world they called a Division" He said, in which Susie receives a spark of insight, though only strong enough to get her attention.

"Then why did he join it to start with?" asked Susie. "Who was he to think a clan like that was for him? Was he risking his hide for the joy of the world like a blind idiot?"

Hearing Susie reply as such came as another source of speculation for Jeremy as he made way for another batch of seconds to think this through. There had to be another reason to explain why her voice and character seemed too familiar.

"You told me your name was Susie, didn't you?" asked Jeremy on paper. By then, Susie had a real reason to turn around and at least partially face him to clear some facts out.

"Well duh, you said YOUR name was Jeremy, punch me if I'm wrong…" asked Susie, until her own wonder provoked her to finish her question through an anomaly. "…does my identity seem to remind you of something?"

Jeremy treated this as less of a big deal than it really was within retrospect. He had a theory to correct by replying, yet the probability of his righteousness was questionable.

"Calvin once told me about an obnoxious girl he knew nine years ago, ONCE" asked Jeremy before pointing at her delicately. It seemed so pointless to ask her this once he looked at her directly in the eyes, her answer might've been that very glare. "You…"

Susie replied with a small but humble nod, finally turning around and walking forward until she could stand a foot and a half away from Jeremy, intimidating him a little. "Time can do so much to you when you pay no attention to it"

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"Would you like some Arizona?" asked Jeremy, walking inside the living room where Susie sat, with two tea cups in his hands.

"What's that?" Susie asked, as she watched Jeremy place the teacup at her side.

"It's like iced tea, bottled up in one can the size of two" her replied as he demonstrated it to her by serving a bit into her cup. Susie judged by the smell it must be good and took hold of the cup, probably because watermelon was her favorite flavor.

"Is this hospitality really necessary?" asked Susie, sipping her cup.

"No, but its Friday, the only day of the week I'm allowed to do this. Besides, it's good to have foreign company once in a while" replied Jeremy before sitting down on the sofa adjacent to the table standing between them. "So you want to know about Calvin, don't you?"

Susie knew how grimly she'd desired the answer to that. It seemed that the hospitality had crushed her down to a dimension small enough to let empathy squeeze itself into the space. All this time, Jeremy was a defensive fellow, yet that didn't mean he didn't have any kindness of his own as long as you knew where to look.

"I did But now it's just pointless" replied Susie, before placing her cup back on the table "All but knowing this without expressing my motive"

"What are you talking about?" asked Jeremy, who on the other hand, poured more of the cold beverage into his cup. "Why the sudden urge to share?"

" That's only if you're interested, otherwise there's no reason why-"

"Oh no, by all means, if you want to tell me about yourself, be my guest! Heck, you ARE my guest" interrupted Jeremy, he chuckled a small amount towards those last words.

One of the real reasons Susie refused to reply with a purpose towards her actions was due to deeper causes. If she was prepared to express what was really the cause of her actions, that would mean she'd have to dig into the precedent that was her memory.

"All right, now before I tell you, I have to know something: how exactly did Calvin describe me whenever he brought me up in the subject?" asked Susie.

"He really didn't do much when it came to that" said Jeremy as he sipped his cup some more.

"He said it was hard to tell whether you were true to the phrase "obnoxious" or if he was really that immature back then. I guess he must've…talked about an age when he was so small; there wasn't really any provable accuracy towards his theories"

"Aww, that's heartwarming. So he does remember me?"

"How old are you anyway?"

"I'm fifteen, and don't tell me, you're twenty three?"

"Wow, fifteen? That's younger than I pictured it! Good shot, though, they usually tell me I'm twenty five, but I keep telling them twenty one"

"Ha! You'd be surprised how old most members are"

This somewhat mutual exchange was becoming as comfortable as the state the sole cushions were keeping her in. Susie felt more prepared than ever to open up now, especially towards Jeremy now that she knew him better.

"The truth is…I thought it was all a lie…I thought it was just life punishing me with more false coincidences…like always…until you told me it was him, and I mean really him." Susie began gravely, before drinking an immense amount of tea in one long gulp.

"Back then, you could say we were the kind of friends that didn't get along once"

Susie's background fades to darkness as it displays her in one of the earliest stages of her childhood._ Her hair was not long or invisible at night but apple fashioned and dark brown. She wore corduroy overalls over a yellow tee with pink stripes._

_At the time she was in not much of a mood, her dollies provided enough to make her forget about whatever it was that seemed to bother her. She was in a sensitive age where visceral needs came before logic, and she wasn't the kind that drowned in anger that simply._

_Not unless she knew someone like Calvin around. At the same age as her, anyone could've figured out the polar opposites they were to each other. Even if Calvin's pure intentions were to lift Susie's spirit instead of toss it to the ground like a football._

_"Here's Stinky, the talking sock!" said Calvin friendlily out of the blue, sporting a black sock with badly drawn eyes._

_Susie would've told him how she wasn't in the right humor as long as she felt the right amount of apathy to let it show. Like any memory, she alone couldn't remember if Calvin interrupted her on time before a word was uttered or if she allowed Calvin to speak up just this once._

_"Hi Stinky! Say something to Susie" Calvin continued before giving an amateur ventriloquist impression._

_"Hello, you ugly bucket of boogers!"_

_He had her at "ugly", which made Susie uppercut Calvin strong enough to lift him off his shoes and back onto the ground. Afterwards she walked away from the scene; stubborn by rage to make forget her doll._

Susie reckoned this as one of the happiest memories of her childhood, knowing at least someone paid attention to her.

"What do you mean you had no friends?" bellowed Jeremy, snapping Susie out of the rendezvous with her déjà vu. "Calvin told me this before…everyone including you were the social kind around, as he only hung out with that stuffed pet of his"

Susie didn't know if maybe this meant she was overstaying her welcome. Jeremy was only trying to host this as politely as possible, knowing Susie didn't look like she had it easy.

"I can assure you the one thing about my youth, separating me from today, was that sociopathic disorder my parents thought I had." replied Susie, wondering if this was even true so that she would open to something else while perfectly related. "Once they and I met Calvin, they thought it would work out until it wore off. I knew we couldn't go as far as trying, no matter how much we had in common. Maybe we were a match made in heaven, even if I didn't know that, even if I was fucking oblivious to that!"

It was official. Jeremy decided to take a risk, her tone was begging for him to dig deeper into any point she was attempting to sow into Jeremy's subconscious.

"You don't sound very happy about it, did you even have a childhood?" asked Jeremy.

"What are you talking about? Everyone has a childhood" replied Susie as she laid her cup down "Maybe what you're trying to ask me is "was I able to cherish it? NO! Sadly, I wasn't"

Jeremy had to admit he was confused, but he couldn't let Susie know that. It didn't matter if they were form the same planet, Susie's persona was rather difficult to analyze without assuming anything.

"…Yeah, I don't think I asked it like that, but if it makes it easier, by all fonts, continue" said Jeremy, nearly regretting it. And he did once Susie gave him a long, rancorous glare, freezing Jeremy in his thoughts.

"You know what?…I don't think I will, you're not aware of the length this has gone!" she replied, breaking the staring contest as she added a scowl once she looked away.

"Of course I am, I'm just trying to listen, so go on and tell me what's troubling…" said Jeremy as he took a detour on his conversation when noticing Susie standing up and walking to abscond the room "Wait, where you going?"

"You're not helping at all, you or anyone of that matter weren't of any improvement, don't you see what I was trying to share with you?"

"Look, calm down, it's not that big of a whoop, okay? Maybe it'd be much easier if Calvin came…"

"Forget it! It's been years since he's seen me, years!" yelled Susie when in the midst of her ignorance, the door behind her opened. "You can only assume you know how it feels!"

Her mild anger began to fade when she tried to make eye contact with Jeremy. Her question on why he was looking away from her was the step that she heard when he took it. She turned around, and saw who she thought she saw standing two feet away. He was tall, spiked blonde hair, with a red jacket over a dark Slipknot shirt.

"Gasp…" she said. Jeremy was a no brainer, but Susie was never prepared for this. She couldn't even feel herself thinking, all logic took a detour for a better acquaintance.

She waited for a response, it didn't matter who would deliver it, as long as it would take those squinting eyes out of her mind. The same eyes she only pictured whenever she was by herself throughout her misbegotten life, they were there again.

She nearly erased her memory of their most recent true encounter together.

"Uhhh…" he said, in an unpremeditated attempt to have Jeremy hook him up on what was going on.

"Calvin! Hi!...How are you?...What brings you here so unexpectedly, and inconveniently?" asked Jeremy, driving Calvin to walk passed Susie so he could get closer to the other guy whom he shared hair color with.

"You were supposed to fix my assailment on that vein so my arm wouldn't leak, remember?" Calvin said and for some reason, pinched his skin, which to Susie's confusion and disgust, peeled right off, readily mimicking the T-800 from Judgment day. The only thing that could top that dismay was the sight of Jeremy treating it like routine.

"I thought we postponed it for tomorrow, my project still needs a few touches of drafting out if I'm supposed to have all these days free" replied Jeremy as he took out what Susie could only assume from how they were used as a double sided monocle which flipped to two when pressed lightly.

He placed the monocle on his eyes to get a better view of the spot on Calvin's arm. He looked back at Susie or a stranger from what he knew, with the doubt in his mind as she returned the urge to smile back.

"Hi" said Susie.

"Hi…" replied Calvin, mouthing out the words 'who is she' towards Jeremy while motioning his eyes back on her over and out.

"Oh, um, Calvin, I'd like you to meet my friend…Sue" said Jeremy. Despite the words, Calvin immediately detected tension within Jeremy's tone, which left him to squint, allowing a conclusion inside of him to make its way out.

Calvin looked back at Susie, whose smile also began to fade the more he left her with the suspicion.

"Hold on!" said Calvin, letting go of Jeremy's concentrated grip to face Susie with greater albeit slower ease "I remember you…you sound just like he…

Even Jeremy had the time to note the stark distrust as Calvin's discovery of the real situation rose from the grave of his untallied ignorance.

"Calvin, I wanted to tell you, but-" began Jeremy, who wasn't cut short by words, but by an insolent stare that started that way when Calvin first gave it.

"Jeremy!" yelled Calvin, who gave his last surprise with a fading disappointment as joy speedy enough to be occupied by slow building laughter and finally, the rest of his reply, replaced it.

"It's the subordinate gal who saved my life!"

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"What about my brother? He's asleep like everyone else in this helpless house, who cares?" replied Jason, who attempted to lower the volume but pressed the channel button by mistake. "I did not turn my back on puberty for this, Marcus, you tell me what's falling you behind this instant!"

"Well listen… something really bad just happened…and I mean HORRIBLE! Tragic actually" said Marcus. His pause was to determine if Jason was apt to reply or remain fastened to the trailer by itself. Attention didn't matter if he was at least taking note of his voice.

"You remember his girlfriend? The one with-"

"No…" said Jason, a whisper loud enough for Marcus to hear.

"Huh?" Asked Marcus, not only amazed by Jason's reply, but upon noticing what his watch had given him: 11:32. Assuming it was as short as a teaser, the trailer would've completed its run by now, and maybe Jason wasn't looking at it all along.

"No, Marcus, NO!" Yelled Jason, to an unusually despondent height, as if Marcus could tell he was about to cry.

"Oh gosh! I forgot about the trailer! I'm really sorry Jason…" said Marcus, knowing the pain of robbing someone of that moment was worse than the one the recipient felt.

"…Look Jason, I know this was extremely important for you, but seriously listen…your brother's girlfriend-"

Jason hung up. Rather than placing himself in Jason's shoes, it meant Marcus could easily use his cell for another reason, one which didn't require the presence of anyone.

Now they both knew, even if only one of them thought drowning in decadence counted as suicide.

Jason could only stand there as the violent image continued to reflect as part of his unjustified torture. His train of thought had been crippled by that first touch of the controller.

Instead of changing the volume, he changed it to a news station.

"_Our top story tonight, 18 year old Denise Russo, murdered within the area of Brown street. Investigators claim it was done by a sniper not too far from the cul-de-sac, judging by a loud bang, officials claim-"_

It hurt even more after he was given the video footage of her outline; most of the cranial area on the pavement was stained with a disgusting abundance of gore. Seeing it made his heart want to bounce out of his ribs.

He didn't know if it was due to the newly found apathy coming from the news reporter whom in spite of doing her job could never take this information he had just received so harshly, or maybe because of the futile decadence that served like an earth where the mutilated feelings deep inside have finally trespassed the sprawl limit and were ready to define the apocalypse. All he knew was he was lost in a loneliness he'd never felt before.

Between turning the television off and hanging the phone up, the situation forced him to taste loneliness like a drug. The kind that made silence exist only in the real world as everything else started melting.

For the first time in his young life, Jason wanted to see if darkness could suffice, give in to his troubles and surrender his fading will. It was as though he could feel all the happiness inside him draining.

With so much darkness, the devil could be watching over him in order to feast on that sadness he was staining his moral aptitude one notion at a time. As that same sadness replaced itself with hardening mortification, Jason realized that that news reporter had proven he didn't have as much apathy for Denise as he thought.

Too lost within that forest of irresolution as he felt he couldn't stop himself, denial was all that remained; that's why he had to imagine her one last time, through the prison that just a few seconds ago was his mind. Her face, her body, her outline which even as it belonged to her could only stand viewable through touch rather than the way Jason was projecting her.

They were petty memories to the subconscious of other individuals. Jason on the other hand was trying to do something more.

It was a magical experience that became beneficial until he came back to the real world to verify the truth. All it did though was remind him of what death really applied for: the worse pain in existence when it didn't pass onto you.

As his emotional ache gained more strength in straining its way out of his enraged expression, Jason couldn't do it: He wasn't prepared to live with Denise' death, even if there wasn't a way out of it.

Because of this, Jason couldn't escape his loss by running away from the thought. All he could do was run away from the house.

Anything he saw was linked to her death, mostly the cold wind once he touched the floor outside his house. There wasn't enough darkness in front of him to forget how his life was slowly starting to fade into an endless funeral as it didn't need to be night to see death's face around.

Clenching his fists to avoid some of the anger, Jason began walking. He walked faster until he began running once the memory was labeled unyielding by his frail will. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, not his life, not his family, not this world, how could someone else' death have more impact on him than on her?

All this added just another reason for Jason to continue running from the newly formed memory beginning to develop in time. The suburbs no longer existed from a mile away where Jason stood, but the memory did. His wounds were opening more and more as he ignored the idea of departing his house, forgetting about Riviablo and Marcus without effort.

They weren't the ones he wanted to stop thinking about anymore.

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_Badabing badaboo! And for now, I guess that'll do! But in all seriousness guys, the other chapters I've yet to finish as of now are impossibly long. In fact, this third chapter may even be the (GULP) last you may see of the story in its pure entirety. _

_But no matter, I will try to get ample time to finish off polishing the other chapter (otherwise I might as well submit them in their crappass prototype format). Wish me luck!_


	4. Chapter 3: Withdrawal

**Chapter 3: Withdrawal**

The grudge filing scowl Susie was receiving at first slowly morphed into a smile of approval and pining for as Calvin took her hand right away. There was hope blossoming in his eyes, the kind Susie knew only an old friend, who hasn't seen you in years, could give you.

"I'm so overwhelmed to finally have you on our side" said Calvin, greeting the old friend he didn't know she was.

"My goodness, you're way prettier than I'd imagined underneath that robe-"

"Wait!" interrupted Susie, knowing there was a moment that had to recall anything but total comfort "You recognized me after all these years?"

Calvin was weirded out by such a statement. He was still excited so he knew that maybe the girl was perhaps also thrilled that she didn't know what she was talking about. It was a comforting feeling as long as it didn't distract him so much.

"Years? It's only been months since our debut fiasco back at the dungeon!" said Calvin as he chuckled a bit "So how have you been? Tell all! Any fun adventures you might want to add?"

Susie couldn't shake the feeling maybe Calvin didn't even remember her in spite of any unsubtle hints from the name Jeremy had crowned her with. It even made her feel ridiculed when Calvin looked like he was only pretending to hold that much amnesia.

"The FBI, CIA and some other BS are landing you on your feet with their daily belt, you have radar for traffic and you don't put unused bread on the table. Would that be your definition of fun?" asked Susie, rubbing Calvin raw.

He knew The Bilk Division well enough to comprehend anyone's judgment towards it. Having one of the most talented members now on the good guys side was still a blessing.

"Geez, I'm sorry, I…"

"DON'T BE! I'm not letting anyone take the blame for anything…not anymore…" interrupted Susie. "Jesus, do you even remember me?"

Susie didn't want Calvin to see her as anyone else as long as there was some history between them. Calvin himself tried his hardest to go beyond the name Sue, whereas Jeremy only continued in savoring the argument. Not that he really enjoyed it in any actuality.

"Are you okay? It's weird that Jeremy hasn't helped you out yet" replied Calvin, who looked aggressively back at his companion.

"Better yet what did you do to her? I know you did something, what is it?"

"Why are you blaming me, Dude? Quit being so fucking paranoid! I offered her anything…"

"DID YOU? I don't need a lie detector to see it in your eyes…"

Susie could only take as much as a useless intention on these words. She did not want two guys fighting for her until they both were aware of her full identity.

"SHUT UP! First, TALK TO ME!" yelled Susie as she grasped the shoulders of Calvin's brown jacket, which got more than his attention. "You don't remember me, do you, Calvin?"

Calvin only looked back as her first choice of reply.

"What are you talking about? You heard me when I called you the Boss' right wing subordinate" replied Calvin, accepting her serious tone due to the lack of muddled paranoia "Why…do I know you or something?"

Susie had no words to give back. Not even her frozen emotions deserved any kind of feedback. Calvin was suffering an amnesia he wanted her to cure because she was the only one who told him about it.

He didn't look at her menacingly, which meant Susie didn´t even know if it´d bother him the more she withheld the reply.

"Seriously? Do we know each other?" asked Calvin.

The blue eyes said it all a Susie gave in to the simplicity that made the pressure disappear.

"No…" she replied.

She hoped Calvin didn't have to know her true identity for now. It just didn't seem very convenient if this was her only way to say hi to an oldest friend.

"I knew I didn't remember you, but you don't seem to be reacting the same way" said Calvin, walking aside in half circles "And this is beyond that whole "Sect" crap"

It woke her up again.

"Wait a minute…." She muttered. " "Sect"?"

Calvin stood still as he eyed her once more. He realized there was so much they needed to talk about, so it was best to start with that mere topic lingering in her quarry.

"Jeremy didn't talk to you about it? It's what outsiders call "The Bilk Division"" replied Calvin earnestly. Even to the point it bothered Susie he might be trying to fake it.

" I'm fully aware of that stupid epithet, and you're seriously telling me it caught on?" asked Susie with none of that cloudy disarray repressed any longer. She deserved it for all she could tell.

"…You know, you're acting even stranger after I recognized you." said Calvin.

More and more she felt tempted to do nothing more except step away from the real mask and tell Calvin all. She wanted to tell him who she was, but if she did, there would be an uncomfortable perception of her he did not need to find out about yet.

With the help of a lie, this could be her fresh start she was looking for.

"I don't know, I'm sorry. I guess it's just…" said Susie as she took a few seconds to nab that fib. "Withdrawal"

The mere word made sense to Calvin if he left it as it is. Susie could tell he was at least letting such an answer swoop past the map, especially since he couldn't find meaning behind it.

"Withdrawal?" he asked. "What's that?"

They say that the truth makes everything else look like a lie, which logically meant vice versa for the opposite. Susie had the advantage of keeping the truth hidden as a way of revealing it anyways.

"I've just been through enough. If it wasn't for your friend Jeremy here, I probably would've turned to my instincts and killed you" said Susie, even for a nuance of her former self.

The idea that maybe the subordinate inside of her might still be at large left a somewhat negative effect on Calvin. He himself wouldn't use the word negative, not directly at Susie as long as she could still change lanes on this highway of second impressions.

"Really? So you still hate me?" Calvin asked in a sincerely yet tamely dejected manner.

It was enough to make Susie see the real kindness Calvin wasn't faking. He knew it was her, although not purely, and that took real empathy.

Now was her chance to return the favor.

"No…it's just that these past couple of months REALLY have robbed me of everything! My life, my future, I can't even remember where my parents used to live" replied Susie.

It didn't bother her now since she managed to find a system of values. She wanted to say it so Calvin could know what it was still like to be in her once tattered and worn out shoes.

It indeed left an impression on Calvin. If his mouth would've made a noise loud enough, it would've been a gulp.

"Then what happened after you left?" asked Calvin, who seemed to detect a sigh from her "You know, it's probably too late right now"

Susie took it as a threat when he saw him turn his head. Maybe it was too much apathy altogether.

"What?" asked Susie, blowing her cover of pretense. "Wait! I can explain…"

"No, I'm saying it's too late to be talking about anything right now" clarified Calvin. "Its night and I don't think whatever you've been through has been one bit of a pleasurable. Maybe it's best to get some rest"

This was a relief for the rest of the conversation, especially since it reminded them that Jeremy was on hold with them.

"Oh, I…okay" said Susie as she headed for the door.

"Sue…where are you going?" asked Jeremy.

"Didn't he say we needed to sleep?" asked Susie.

"Outside?" replied Jeremy

"Duh, where else all this time?" replied Susie as she continued walking. She saw as Calvin didn't budge, only Jeremy once she was inches away from the door.

Jeremy wasn't going to allow this, he knew she didn't have to suffer anymore.

"No, no, you're still my guest, come on! You can bunk in my bed for the night" said Jeremy as he made it to her side.

Susie turned to his side.

"Really?... Are you sure?"

"I am…I'll just sleep in the couch"

"…Aaawww, but Jeremy, it's your house! Why don't I stay there for one night?"

"Like I said, you're my, guest, and you…"

"No, Sue is right; everything right now is taking its wing under siege" interrupted Calvin as he laid his mechanical arm on her shoulder. "If you want anyone to sleep down here tonight, let it be me"

Susie almost shuddered upon feeling the stale metal touch her. She forgot he had his own type of automail now.

"Naw, Calvin come on, you live here…" said Susie before he took his arm off.

"Exactly, I'm just as used to it now as you were before I came, so it's no one else's turn now" said Calvin before walking away.

Jeremy shrugged as he led Susie back to the stairs near the living room. Susie saw Calvin lay a sheet on the couch, reminding her of a fresh kind of comfort for no reason.

"Suit yourself, dude" said Jeremy as he began to walk up each step.

Susie followed slowly, almost as if she was waiting for Calvin to turn the lights down.

"Good night, Calvin" she said.

Calvin didn't reply for the same reason Susie didn't budge. His hand had to reach the switch in order to call himself ready for the night.

"Get some rest, we'll chew it out tomorrow" said Calvin before the only light available was the one above Susie's head, coming from the room Jeremy and her would bunk in.

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Jason Fox sat on a bench next to a fountain within the local park. He had so many mixed emotions, so many loose ends he tried to tie up. Knowing that The Bilk Division had done the impossible and deceived him without knowing was to be the highlight of his prospect.

"I know in my heart I contributed to your death, Denise" he muttered to himself "but I don't know how"

He almost started rocking back and forth. Crippled by the lust for nostalgia, he reached for his pocket and took out a photo. The same photo his brother threw away after he broke up with her. Jason knew this was the last memory to be in this outline.

Already, he almost started denying that she really was gone for good. The only thing stopping him was the smell in the autopsy room. The very limp hand that held enough force to immobilize Jason's free will and release all the gut wrenching grief from his eyes.

"Someone tell me what is it? Join the Bilk Division…keep secrets from everyone…LEAVE the Bilk Division…START LIKING GIRLS!" Said Jason as the mystery's cancerous frustration pushed the sour tears out of him.

"IS THIS WHAT I GET FOR GOING AGAINST MY NATURE?"

It just wasn't fair. Not even one kid in the world that actually liked women deserved to feel the pain alone.

Jason had no choice. As he stood up and walked away from the spot, He knew shedding tears would be like giving in to the traitor's whim. Neither did he want anger to interfere until he was face to face with The High Boss and on the frame of finally gaining that retribution.

"Fuck indecision, I will make them pay and suffer at the same time!" said Jason as he walked off. He left behind the photo in exchange for his furious resolve.

And a gun.

()()()()()()()()()(()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()  
><em>It's like 12 AM where I am right now. The worst part is this chapter is half the size I initially had it instated for. I'm just glad, however, that I was right on schedule (albeit a few hours late) and could finish this piece as it was meant to be.<em>

_Who am I kidding; I'm going to bed now. Review me!_


	5. Chapter 4: Caviar for the Teenage Soul

**Chapter 4: Caviar for the Teenage Soul**

Jeremy looked back at his watch; he made sure it was concise with the clock next to his bed as he set up a sleeping bag for Susie. She only sat there whittling on her knife like it never had enough razor.

10:50.

"Oh damn it, man! That report's going to have to wait until tomorrow" Sprang Jeremy, without regards to any of the clocks as he finished the bed. "Anyway, have the bed; I'll be a slug tonight"

Susie stood as she looked down at the bed. This was the first time in months, almost years, since she slept anywhere other than the hard shield of a newspaper clad sidewalk. The cushions were fuzzy to her touch by merely sitting on them.

"What report?" she asked.

"Oh! Did I say that out loud? Naw, just reminding myself, that's all" replied Jeremy, heaving Susie's curiosity out of the dust.

"Of what?"

"I had to finish two assignments" said Jeremy as he spread his hands out like her were displaying the blueprints of something."One was this preclusive report on this iron role found within customizing spare car fragments to create a recycling system that actually takes old products you have but don't use anymore and rebuilds them to function on other alloy systems"

"It's actually more than less based on cleaning the objects rather than reconstructing them, but since there's no way of looking at it with the same gear and merely scrubbing off whatever muck you see on it, I digress"

"Wow…sounds interesting"

"It is"

"And what's the second assignment about?"

It wouldn't have been long until Susie finally managed to ask Jeremy that question. She was still curious about everything and was willing to prove it by making sure Jeremy wasn't on guard himself. As long as she didn't expect him to feel surprised or even insensible about it.

"About what you just saw" asked Jeremy before making eye contact. "…Or actually, don't you want to finish telling your story?"

Now Susie was the one carrying the torch as she too couldn't remember that trade until now. It was all still on hold as she could very well recall it.

"What? Oh! It's really not much of a big deal anymore" she said before giving her mind some time to bring it all back. "All I can remember was Calvin's parents having financial differences and they couldn't stay for long, so they moved and took the closest thing to company I had. After Calvin left, I choked. Whatever it was that was shoved deep into my throat, stayed there for a while. Of course, I forgot he completely existed after three years."

Judging by the subtle details, Jeremy could soon enough expect a story to form from this. He'd be willing to question whatever answers he could get out of her, if she'd let him.

"I see" said Jeremy as he tucked himself into the bag. "What brought you to work for The Sec…I mean, The Bilk Division?"

Susie had waited more days than she could count for someone to ask her that. It simply filled her up to her neck that she could now explain the history behind the missing gear Jeremy found to this machine of chaos.

"It wasn't until turned eight when I started making other friends, ones that understood me" said Susie as she brought herself back to the old days, the ones she still wished were around her. "The only catch was that they were usually two years or older than me, not that there was anything predisposed about that"

It was true as she imagined a great crowd of people dressed purely in brown. _It was a silent dystopia; a symbol of Susie's faded memory. Instead, she was left with a metaphoric sketch of her true character amongst the millions of sheep who she could never call unique._

_She could almost feel herself fading as the very group of numerous people didn't seem to move. They moved like cardboard stumbling the slightest by the wind._

_Only she stood still,_

_the same way she did now in time._

"You were the top of your class" said Jeremy, inviting Susie back to the real world. Her vision was blurred by the dotted fuzz she awoke from before replying.

"Yeah" said Susie before her mind's eye forced her into recollection. "I remember everyone thought I had so much knowledge, making so many friends…except one"

There that one stood, out of the many conformist faces. _Susie could see as it dimmed into a dark blue, soon the rest of the crowd lost their brown._

_They reclaimed their rainbow frontage as Susie could distinguish both herself and the one stranger which slowly faded. _

_Giving Susie's memory a more down to earth approach._

"You can't always satisfy all of them" replied Jeremy.

Susie finally got to lying down on the bed. She never noticed all the repetitive yet interesting posters around the walls.

"But I was cocky back then. The popularity didn't matter to me that much, even if they gave me it anyways, it was far from my concerns. All I really cared about was the respect"

"It's not like that one person bothered you or anything"

"You still don't know what it was like, the first month I saw that one person was the month I couldn't quit thinking about the history behind."

"Why? Was he or she like a model you knew and obsessed with even if they never paid much attention to you?"

"Not really, there was this mysterious aura that was just hard to ignore, by me at least, it was the world that didn't really care much" she continued with less pauses "I reckoned maybe I should find out more about this needle who made me feel like another hay in the sack"

"Did you in the end?"

And the answer to that question was ambiguous. _Susie didn't believe in reincarnation. She barely believed in luck. Only coincidences had the honor of keeping their well deserved plausibility as they relied on logic, not clairvoyance._

_As the crowd magically slid away like opposed magnets and the background slowly took the form of bleak darkness you only saw on a stage, the spotlight shone on two people._

_Susie and a hooded figure with the mask that resembled rainbow colored ink blotches._

"Personally, no…but in another way, I think I did" she replied as she pictured the figure walking over that person and stopping after they were two feet apart at the same height. "Once the month was over, I stopped seeing whover they were. Now I should mention that my respect was owed by my apparent fluency in martial arts"

"YOU know Martial arts? Get out!"

"Karate, Aikido, you name it! Black belt in all of them, too easy anyway, but if you want I can kick your ass right now!"

"Interesting"

"Yeah, but "Interesting" was less of a synonym for "unnecessary" than I thought back then. I should just tell you that I grew up on the wrong side of town, not that it wasn't fun for a while"

"I never took it how you were initiated"

"It was for every member who only wished to become part of it" she replied "I, however, was given something they used to call rare unless there wasn't any choice to consider when it came to talent: an invitation"

"How'd that happen?"

Another good question. _The same stage quickly shifted through props as chapters began unfolding. Susie and the Boss, the same height of five feet seven, sat next to each other outside of a café under a parasol furnished table during dark._

"Remember that mysterious person who ceased appearing after I gave up looking for them?" said Susie before pausing a little to make sure Jeremy wasn't out of focus. "A month later, it came back and told me it was the boss"

Jeremy's eyes widened as he felt shocked not by the statement but by himself. He could've easily seen it coming, and he even knew it was coming, but never like Susie described it.

"No kidding, you're probably the first person of your kind to have seen that face" he replied before Susie rolled her eyes.

"Actually, I didn't" she said "If all members were more heavily disguised than the average death eater, could you imagine how distorted its attire must've been?"

Jeremy could see what she might've meant by that. Secrecy was the most important thing in any organization on the run from the radar.

"I don't know, maybe it was the same size, but it wasn't in my volition to assume right away it could've been." replied Susie.

Bringing her back to the scenario within outside of the café, it was like a couple of hours ago. The newer it felt, the more she wished she could take it back.

Needless to say it was _too late._

_"Does the name "Bilk Division" ring a bell to you anywhere?" asked the hooded figure. Susie looked back at it. It's actual face resembled a mixture of a Balrog and Sparda from DMC 3 for some reason, if only there was a hint of eyes behind it._

_"No, what is it? Some sort of club?" asked Susie back._

_"Think a mix between the secret organization that makes up most mobs nowadays and a cult" replied the Boss as it extended its hands. _

_"In what sense?" _

_"We take what we do very seriously, and we're kids. The only reason we make mistakes is under the leadership of adults, youth has more to do with it when we grow up with more advanced media" it said as it even took out a copy of DMC3. "It's thanks to its manipulation that we're able to go the full Monty and create a businesslike environment that doesn't need profit to be successful"_

_The Boss handed Susie the cartridge as Susie took hold of it. She held the brimming interest of so many gamers when she looked at Dante's face. She was living in a planet where video games were considered an art form and yet could be reproduced._

_"No profit" she replied before returning the cartridge straight back to the boss' leather gloved hands. "I take it you have some sort of explicit agenda underneath"_

_A small sound came from the Boss, Susie couldn't tell if it was a small smirk or a distant cough. Other than a mask, the Boss also came equipped with a voice scrambler underneath all that._

_"Literally, we market videogames the same way drug dealers market psilocybin and angel dust" it replied as it leant back. "On a more profound level, we use technology to betray everyone, including itself"_

_"Oh, the foot barrage effect!"_

_"The?"_

_"A rumor I heard a long time ago about a guy who bought a lot of expensive crap with the money he worked hard with. Bunch of thieves and muggers thought he was a spoiled putz, they held him up and took everything except the clothes on his back. Once gone, that same guy went all the way up the tallest hill and stopped once he had a good view of the city. He then takes his shoe off and removes a little compartment with a PIN like device attached. He presses the one button and looks back at the city."_

_"Specific areas start blowing up, first the less spacey ones, then another after another. He just sat there and watched, a terrorist enjoying his own Fourth of July. Or some might say his own fifth of November*****"_

_"So he installed explosive devices inside his belongings"_

_"Some say that's what really happens in the battlefield"_

_"Well we on the other hand rely on a real elaborate set of digits that if arranged right, can give you access to whatever videogames you want right on your computer screen"_

_"That's all?"_

_Susie would come to know how lucky and skilled she was to gain such an opportunity to speak as such. The Boss and she were only strangers at that time, giving Susie all the patience she wanted._

_"It would've been, had you not mentioned the explicit agenda in our gamut" "Here's where we become as hostile as any Drug lords when looking at it from a technical manner"_

_"Is that also where the cult aspect of your secret organization fits in?"_

_"Sort of, there are three types of members in this Division. Ones are the more faithful ones who aren't perfect but don't have enough flaws to tell. Two and threes do" said the Boss. "Those are authorized to wear a device that attaches itself to any wristband for camouflage. Without getting into much detail that may need unnecessary explanation, if you're faithful it lets you live. If you're not, you and or your loved ones die"_

_Another past meets present moment would've come to order. Susie also recalled what the Boss mentioned later on as "pagers", which were cloaked wristbands as she had described which could either explode or poison their hosts._

_Most of the exploding ones were for the members who tried to run off._

_"Is knowing how it works is not a prerequisite in this division?" asked Susie._

_"That's right" said the Boss. "But nowadays members just come and go, you see? You know someone for a long time, only to have them piss off, like they never even considered saying hi to you anymore. What kind of friends are those? In my case, I wouldn't blame them; I kill those sorts of people. Not cause of belated friendship, rather cause of betrayal, two completely different things, you probably already knew that. Therefore, you can't come to me as an acquaintance in order to work for me, at least not for the subordinate spot. Between you and me, I'm not doing it for order, power, for political respect. My motives are that of a unique nature"_

_"What are they?"_

_"They're my prized possession. Profit can come at any price when it's used to define it at its quality/quantity ratio. After all, it's just money, an object, like all video games or any other possession for that matter used for petty purchases. Ideas, however, simple as they sound at first, are more expensive than people have been taking them for years. True they may come by the same way with strong wealth and prominence to fuel. But they're catalysts compared to its core strength that is known as complex planning. When something is valuable enough to plan out first, in order to obtain, even after its prominence, the only thing it's not worthy of is sharing, at least not right away."_

_"So…when will anyone know what that's supposed to be?"_

_"When the time is right, patience is not a virtue. It's an obstacle we treat like one until it's finally out of our corridor and ready to let us pass. I already have the aristocratic board game, now with perfect timing, I must conquer it."_

_"Oh…so if I join this…Division, will I be expecting the same violent disadvantages of any dirty job you mobs have on my resume and still have the sick audacity to call it "JUST business"?"_

_"Take a good look through our view. Unlike mobs, nobody can really call each other family. Together, we're more of a brotherhood if you will, some may even say sisterhood... Have you ever played Hitman, Assassin's creed or even Resident Evil four? If you have, that's what we are: Iluminados. That's how seriously we take video game. To us, **life **_IS_** a video game**. Otherwise we're nothing but disposable pawns"_

_"Out of all the nerds in this world, guys especially, who breathe video games, why choose me?"_

_"You, my friend, have a talent which can't be measured within our scale. I don't mean it in an indifferent sense. I mean it as a compliment which shoots beyond its height, unimpressive unless I can prove it has left the stratosphere. It transcends the usual requirement needed to take on for this Division. If you join me, I can help you develop your talent, I have the tools you need, and the salary is just as impressive to match your skill."_

_"Sigh…I'll have to think about it."_

_"Really…you don't want to join"_

_"I didn't say that! I'm just not prepared for it."_

_The Boss immediately stands up from the chair. The entire background looses it's darkish place in reality in return to a nightmarish black. Soon the table also begins to repel them_

_"But you didn't say yes either, so how will I know when YOU know for yourself when you'll be ready? People come and go, some say they're ready, but all I see is brutal incompetence. They let themselves judge their own skill, that's how weak they are."_

_"Am I weak?"_

_Susie could only see the Boss begin to fade away from her vision as the rest of the bleak background began engulfing it. It's robotic voice leaving behind a hint._

_"That's really up to you, but remember-" said The Boss before awakening Susie from her daydream at night "A man chooses, a slave obeys"_

"Two years of working for IT, two years I could've spent my childhood like everyone else…just to find out the hard way what betrayal really meant!" said Susie, before realizing her anger had to be toned down. Coming out of a memory wasn't easy when returning to the world you belonged."It practically raised me! How could anyone betray their own kin?"

"IT betrayed you?" asked Jeremy "How?"

"SIGH, weeks, I think, after I spared Calvin, when the Boss, through a squeezed situation, found out I didn't do the job right" said Susie, before looking Jeremy in the eye like it was his fault. "But get this: IT didn't tell me IT knew…not that easily"

Jeremy could see into her very heart how enthralling this was for the both. He hated interrogating anyone once they were tired of it. If only Susie knew he wasn't exactly waiting for an answer if he never made the question.

"But seeing as you left, something must have happened to make IT know later on" he said.

Susie looked away as it came back to her once again. This next memory she didn't have to explain but still chose to think about. There was enough to decipher from it.

"I don't like to think about it. One day, when I came in on the job, IT told me I had a special mission to attend to" she said to herself.

Then the memory came without the need for her eyes to close. _Only this time, her viewpoint was not metaphorical in the least._

_"WAIT, STEVE!" Denise yelled; right when it was too late as the car became part of the dark mist that was invisible to those unfamiliar with nighttime. "GASP!"  
><em>

_Susie heard the car leave and watched as Steve tried his best not to look at her, cuing her mission at hand._

_The car's noise was to serve as diversion for her to get closer to the blind girl. At the same time that the car rode far enough to be unheard, Susie took one more step until she was a yard away from Denise._

_This caused her to nearly be heard. Susie stood still until she was focused back on the letter within her sweating clutch._

_"… M-Y…. F-A…M-…" _

_For every letter Denise stuttered, Susie slowly moved her hand into her pocket. Close enough to rake out a small gun and aim it at her._

_"-M-I-L-Y"._

_Susie had the perfect headshot. But standing there made her ponder why she was doing it for a split second. She was never told why she was ordered to kill her; The Boss just said it was a matter of standards._

_"I'm sorry Denise, they had my family" _

_Susie closed her eyes at that moment in order to spare her the image before cocking the barrel. Seconds later, the trigger leaned back._

_But it wasn't her._

_She wasn't the one who did it. She wasn't even aiming at her when Denise hit the ground like a curve stomp from a sledgehammer._ The worst part of that thought was finally over._  
><em>

"I tried going back to where the Division was initially held after that" she continued. "The only thing inside of there was the fuzz waiting for me"

"How did you know?"

That's where Jeremy sailed too far. He could've answered that question on his own, even though Susie implied that he should've first.

"They caught me as soon as I entered!" she almost bellowed "The Boss had it all planned out somehow. Long story short, if you saw what the Boss left behind within the room, you'd obviously know killing a disabled person was just icing on the cake"

The situation was making Susie tired to her wake as she looked back at the clock that Jeremy had initially set. Jeremy knew as well how tired they both must've been either way.

"OH, Sorry…" he said without really weighing the chances "Then how did you escape?"

"Other than martial arts, other basic skill I mastered at youth was escaping handcuffs with a bobby pin. A week after, I went to the only place I knew could take me in"

"You mean here?" He asked as he was once again treated with her grim perception before an answer.

"Where else?"

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**_*_V For Vendetta.**

_Great movie btw._  
><em><br>It's amazing how much of this chapter I managed to get past all around. I really don't likle counting my chickens before they die, but neither do I like the position I am in to continue writing all of this overall. Once again, if I can update I'll prove it to you._

_Otherwise bye!_


	6. Chapter 5: Everybody's Fool

**Chapter 5: Everybody's Fool **

_Without the mask, where will you hide?  
>Can't find yourself lost in your lie<em>

_I know the truth now_  
><em>I know who you are<em>  
><em>And I don't love you anymore<strong>*<strong>_

Morton Goldthwait locked himself within the space of a phone booth. It was pitch black outside of any old city. He was also glad he was wearing the trench coat before he left. The less anyone saw of his face, the better.

The tiresome brought on this time of night made him forget a lot of things. One of them being he was talking to one of the members on that same phone.

"How close have you ever been to a squirrel, Morton?" asked the rusty whisper. Morton tried to reply clearly even for a mimicking tone.

"Never too close"

"They're rabid, I know" began the member before preceding his story.

"When I was reading once, a squirrel came about a foot near me without my noticing. My face was buried in History so I didn't look until it came closer. It took the time to look at me before it ran off for no reason. My curiosity was on whether it was looking for something. Maybe it was hungry, and I was eating chips at the time. So hoping it would come back; I break a piece of my Ruffles and leave it close to where I could remember the little rodent stood by. I wait for a minute or so and surprisingly, the squirrel comes back. It even gives me the chance to look at it as it nibbles down the snack I offered. Then it stops. It puts the food down curiously and sniffs the air. I was as confused as it was, until I watched it climb up and into the trash can next to me"

Morton didn't stop until whoever the member was finished off. It was only a shame these were the details he would soon forget had they not been given so precisely.

But he understood the moral well enough.

"What happened?" Morton asked, hoping he wasn't too loud.

"Would you believe me if I told you it came out with an entire hamburger?"

"No way!"

"Neither would I, especially since my only regret wasn't recording it!"

Morton could only wait until the awkward silence was broken with the actual purpose statement. He wasn't there to contribute, only to listen. It was what he was called for with the exception of the traffic known as passing the time.

"Morton?" began the member with a short pause in the midst. "Do mice speak when they're not fibbing?"

"Do Androids dream of electric sheep?"

"I guess so"

"That's all you need to know"

"Thanks"

Morton hung the phone quietly before he struggled his way out of the booth's dry door. His aim was now towards an ally made invisible by its depth thanks to the heavy shadow.

Before fading with the other side, Morton reached for his pocket. He took out a Sig.

"What have I done?" he asked himself, dropping the gun before entering the shadows. His back was the last thing seen by an unexpected shape that followed him farther than he could hear.

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Some papers were still lying around in the darkish yellow halls of the abandoned school the member monitored. Nothing was ever creepy about abandoned nighttime so long as you were beyond certain you were alone.

Unfortunately enough, that was exactly the member's job.

He felt like he was more or less guarding it instead of monitoring the floors in hopes he would make sure there wasn't anything to worry about anymore. The halls were as hollow as the endless array of woods, without guarantee of any sounds from a whole corridor away.

If only he had opened the doors to eclipse the sudden footsteps far from the exit. He had no choice but to walk back, about seven classrooms away from where he stood.

Once he made it to another hallway facing his left, he heard and saw a door partially close itself.

"Who goes there!" he yelled, his echo controlling the entire building. The member opened the door.

"Come out or I swear I'm authorized to shoot!"

He came inside the hollow storage room. The moonlight hinted piles of boxes to the right with the vacant decay of a principal's desk.

Not to mention the silhouette of what he could only make out as a kid wearing glasses. The very spectacles reflected a white light. It took Marcus the second scan to realize he was standing there, more a statue than any other object nearby.

"...This is a restricted area, leave or I'll be forced to take arm power" said the member, as though he knew his face.

"You are who I think you are, am I lying?" the boy responded.

"I…I don't know what you're talking about, either make tracks or-" said the member before the kid lifted its right arm in a suspiciously mechanical manner.

Revealing what looked like a small blade with a USB port sticking out of the handle.

"What a relief" began the boy sneeringly "So you wouldn't mind if I show you THIS"

The light was vague and still the lone member managed to make out the real outline thanks to it.

"Wait, that's not my-"

"Oh, you mean MY World of Warquest golden Orc shield expansion file? It's no big; cost me a grand from the market geek down at Amazon" finished the boy, laying his hand down in that same lifeless manner.

The member couldn't stand this rage any longer, forcing his identity to come out into the open. Violating his sacrament, the member revealed his code to be A11 as he was indeed Marcus Jones removing the tribal hockey mask, voice scrambler and Gregorian hood simultaneously.

"Damn it, Jason! Why would you lie to me claiming you didn't take it without asking?" said Marcus as he walked quickly to his side.

His shock as he took hold of a big cardboard cutout and a fake Port. The moonlight was only enough to make it look like an acceptable scapegoat.

It didn't take long for Marcus to see the rope tied to the opposable arm. Not that it was the first thing that interrupted him.

"Simple" said the real Jason before switching the flickering light bulb on "Cause YOU lied telling me it wasn't you!"

Marcus turned around. What looked less like Jason and more like a dirty clone locked for years finally let lose to hunt for organs pointed a revolver at him.

For a moment, the night had nothing on Marcus' fear. Fear enough to make him drop his own gun by a jump.

"Whoa! Jason, take it easy now!" said Marcus, only begging for Jason to scold him

"It's been hours! You don't know what kind of crazy shit I've sailed through" said Jason in a slow, threatening voice. "Oh hold on, you do, don't you? Judging from the attire, it's clear I'M not the only one who's been part of the demeanor this whole time!"

Marcus was not ready for this. He didn't know anything yet, he hadn't even started to assume why Jason was this pissed off. The last thing he wanted was the worst.

"Listen, I know I've hidden a lot from you these past few days-" began Marcus before Jason waved the gun in a manner that hinted he was set to use it.

"DON'T TRY TO MAKE ME FEEL ANY DIFFERENT THAN I AM NOW! I DIDN'T COME HERE TO ASK YOU FOR DIRECTIONS! I want the clear cut truth, and now you don't have a choice anymore!" began Jason, reading Marcus' pupils past their surface. "Were you PART of the Division before I was even invited? Huh?"

Marcus needed the time to think for a moment before replying. Neither Jason's eyes nor his mouth were predestined to do him a solid on patience.

He couldn't even look away to avoid the pressure.

"ANSWER ME!" bellowed Jason so the whole school could hear.

"Yes! Okay? Yes! I'm part of the Division; I mean I was and STILL am! I knew it before you did it, I was in cahoots with a lot of things, okay?"

"Like what?"

"Whu…What do you mean "Like what?"? Jason, I'm a member like everybody-"

Jason could tell Marcus he was a failure at keeping secrets; he just preferred to show him as he tucked his hand into his pockets. A familiar card came out, marked with red stains.

"Where did you… what's that?"

"You know what this is, don't you?"

Marcus couldn't help but glimpse at the slight smile from Jason's offensive nature. It was now possible he was fueled by something damn near wrath.

"Jason, do me a favor and lower the gun, okay? I can't think straight with that thing staring-"

"STOP STARING AT THE FUCKING GUN! Nobody's that stupid, Marcus! Even SHE could tell you who this was from, by the emblem on the bottom" bellowed Jason as he stuck the card right at Marcus' scowl until he didn't look past it. "Not clue enough for ya yet? SEE FOR YOURSELF!"

Marcus didn't know what to say anymore. He felt himself begin to sweat for the first time. The thought that Jason might kill him if he chose to divulge anything was beyond all repairs.

For all he knew, Jason himself was already dead the moment he saw him

"Jason, please" stuttered Marcus, vainly hoping her would see the sweat on his face as well "Believe me as a friend on this! I'm really sorry about Denise! There… there really wasn't anything I could do, she was…I just couldn't do anything about it, okay? "

Jason closed the door before facing Marcus to get a better picture of him. Anyone could tell his own friend was on the verge of breaking down.

Jason shook his head.

"Weak try, even I COULD TELL MY OWN APART FROM LYING STALE FOR WHAT WAS REALLY AN HOUR BUT FELT LIKE A MINUTE AFTER SNEAKING OUT OF THAT GODDAMN AUTOPSY!" replied Jason, disregarding even his own emotions. "My love for Denise transcended something you or anyone in this godforsaken planet would never give me! It made me question for the first time in my life why I needed to hate girls! Why I needed to live in seclusion now that I was simply ahead of the fucking curve!"

Never had such a grudge possessed Jason like this before. This surpassed Riviablo standards. Marcus glared into his eyes before grabbing the gun as though he were opting to remove.

Instead, he leans the barrel, resting it on his forehead.

"Go on, I don't deserve to live one way or the other" Marcus began, swallowing the words he was about to speak anyhow "The reason I joined was to make me feel less guilty about death and how it reached people less fortunate than me."

He never said that to agitate Jason in any way. He knew it wouldn't work; honesty was seriously his ultimate choice.

"You're not going to tell me who's behind this then" asked Jason.

"I shouldn't" began Marcus, letting one tear loose. "If I tell you everything, the true reason behind it will cost me my life anyway, and it'll cost you something more important"

'Like what?" Jason immediately asked "Revenge is the only important thing to me right now"

Marcus wasn't asking for mercy anymore. He just lay quiet, hoping Jason would in fact do him the favor by taking away his rationale on all mobile will.

"Spare me the grounds then, give me the name of the Boss, I'll take it from there" continued Jason.

By now, Marcus could see the virus within the crystal pupils growing within his best friend. How he wished there was some happiness still there. The possibility for forgiveness had long faded by now.

Marcus took a pen out of his pocket and wrote down something ambiguous on the same index card. He handed it to Jason when he was done. Jason looked at it with the same drunk scowl as though it never made a difference.

"All right, now tell me then-" said Marcus before he made sure Jason's reflexes were still on hold.

Before he noticed, Marcus swiftly kicks the gun out of Jason's hands, pointing at him and at his ostentatious eyes.

"Do you believe me now? Huh?"

BAM!

"DO YOU, JASON?" bellowed Marcus

Jason only saw enough to know the light bulb exploded into the darkness. Not even the moon's pale reflection could guide him into Marcus' side.

"Marcus? Where are you?" asked Jason, suddenly not as discontented anymore.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Marcus, who's voice simply wasn't enough to guide anyone into his position "I've been living in the shadows by your side since kindergarten."

"Easy man, we're in the same league now!"

"I've done everything you've wanted me to do, agree to every task. ALLOWED YOU TO TRUST ME AS LONG AS I COULD TRUST YOU!"

"I never thought it was that big of a deal , you never made it seem like it!"

Apparently, the light and darkness traded places the same way Marcus traded his inconspicuous resonance with Jason's green fury.

"BIG DEAL? You mean something ineffective like letting you spinoff with my owm family, earning the benefit of cosplaying Mario for once, OR MINDING MY OWN FUCKING BULLSHIT!"

"Okay, so I'm a selfish egoist, it's not like you have to follow in my footsteps! I never knew you wanted me to look up to you as more than a friend!"

"Have you ever considered asking me once, then? I always looked up to you, even after I knew you liked Densie!"

"You never told me you knew I liked her!"

"You never told me you did from the get go! What you didn't know hurt you anyway! It hurt me, and now…"

Jason alone wondered if maybe a casual tone could break things up. Even if he didn't know Marcus could spot his every move.

"Well it's not like you're actually going to shoot me, right?" said Jason as he scooted over towards the door "Between you and me, I wasn't going to-"

BAM!

"AAAA! FUCK!" yelled Jason, dropping to the ground. His arm had been shot, even though the bullet dodged the flesh.

"Sorry Jason" said Marcus, emerging into a hint of moonlight only enough to highlight the left side of his face. Both the gun and his monotonous glare were looking into his condition.

"But Leechboy and Slugman are going solo…"

Jason clenched his eyes, away from the pain and the upcoming shot.

BAM!

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***_Amy Lee_, Evanescence.**

Another chapter I had to cut short. My real wish when writing these is to leave my angsty roots behind in order to find a more descriptive nature. Of course I do a better job when writing it first as a script before an actual story.

As usual, if I don't come back, consider this story over.


	7. Chapter 6: Disclosures

**Chapter 6: Disclosures**

Morton entered the void he saw as the vacant alleyway, not knowing what was underneath. He walked until he saw how below the empty trash and a vagabond's abandoned set, a brick wall lay ahead. The shadows made it hard to tell whether it was as high as the buildings it separated, let alone a grayish hue of orange and indigo.

It was an empty end.

Somehow, Morton knew he'd gone too far. There wasn't a drifter in sight when he first entered the barrenness on the sidewalk, so the fading footsteps didn't come from one.

"Go on, turn around" said the demonic pitch.

Morton found it hard to hide his shivering mood; he didn't know how far the figure was. Let alone if it really was who he guessed.

"No point" he began quickly, before stammering the next phrases. "It's…too dark to see"

No one could deny the very pleasure whoever that person was found in the hesitation. Morton knew he might've given away the fear he wanted to hide but wasn't even trying.

"There's enough light behind me from the remaining lamppost" said the figure as it slowly walked towards him "Besides, you know who I am…Morton"

The last word punctured itself with a heavy intricacy. It left Morton with no other option other than to face the demonic reverend and confess its false witness.

It was a hooded member.

"I always knew the future changed events. It took what we had right now, and made it a second longer, A second older, and in my case as well as others', a second weaker. My question to you: why does a second have to feel like a year?"

"That's how it is to be left behind. You're either with the Xbox or you remain with the 64. You have to catch up!"

"But videogames were made to entertain us, to serve as an art form, maybe to imitate life a bit. That's what they thought back then. That's why they made them"

"What about now?"

"Now, it seems as if they're trying to replicate it!"

Morton wasn't upset to the extent he wasn't looking at the ambiguous member's hands. He was holding the gun that Morton had left behind before cornering himself. The member crossed his arms, holding the same weapon, making Morton feel as if he knew what was going to happen.

"They're more likely trying to replace narcotics and stimulants for us, found within the hideouts of drug lords. For the rest of the herd, take your pick. Entertainments, art form, exercise, fucking school, and in the case of some nut job down in Japan, love interests." He said meticulously "Videogames can be anything by now if you give them the value they deserve. Depending on how you use them. We're living in a world were ugly things can be abused as many times as desired and the masses will still enjoy the hell out of them. That's why they're the new drug for us"

The member shifted twenty degrees away from Morton's direction. Needless to say the mask seldom made him tell if he was facing him or on to something else.

"Is it…then?" stammered Morton, finally aware of why the member faced away, "Is it possible to….blame the generation I'm part of? The lost genereation?"

"Not unless you don't consider yourself part of it" said the member, looking up "Otherwise it's easier to resign from it-"

BAM!

"-than it was to resign us"

Morton fell to the ground. The new burn weakened him more than ever. He didn't want this, and yet he wasn't distracted as long as the member lingered in the asphalt.

"…Why?" he panted, looking down at his bloodstained palms. The member didn't answer yet. Instead, he threw the gun right at his knees, with an open magazine, to shy away any ideas.

"You left this fine tool for dead, someone was bound to avenge-"

"No, I mean why this way?"

He covered the wound fruitlessly.

"Existence is already slow and painful. Since you could never catch up, all I did was remove the slow" said the member before turning around "You'll be thanking the Boss later"

This was not how Morton wanted to go, nor how he wanted the member to.

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So now most of the lights had been shut off. Susie looked back at Jeremy, who ricochet the sentiment. They were swallowing each other's reaction to the web of truth. One of them was prepared to thoroughly.

"Wow" began Jeremy, refusing to cough "Looks like you've really taken yourself on the wildest of rides"

Susie had her doubts. She only wished to think of herself as normal from now on. This so-called interrogation had to end soon. There was no point in hiding out in a place that offered sanctuary but came with a price.

Maybe she could play it on him, see how he felt.

"Not really, I just had a rough landing" said Susie, who to Jeremy was begging for a conversation until their actual urge to sleep finally gave them a choice. "That's all"

"With all that execution and filling a murder's shoes, that's no easy ride, man" He replied. "I'd have nightmares thinking about severing the innocent hands of children."

"It's kind of like I said, the misty future was no worry until what was long forgotten managed to find its way back."

Jeremy wasn't really interested in divulging as much as he could from her as possible. Empathy had taken a new measure on how he judged the truth. She was perhaps wrong with her facts on a few occasions as far as things went.

"I didn't think Calvin would be the type of guy you'd run into after all these years. He told me he had a lay low childhood" said Jeremy thinking it through.

Autism came to mind when Jeremy thought of describing his picture of Calvin's real history. He was just too afraid to admit it, Susie wouldn't even agree with the previous sincerity of his comments.

"It seems to me that Calvin forgot he even had a childhood" she replied.

"Well he's actually a very envious guy. Don't tell him I said that, though"

"I won't, but it's still no big deal"

"How so?"

"I know we were kids at the time…too young maybe… but after what? Ten years? Even I could recognize him from a crowd of ten thousand people, maybe more, the day of his execution." said Susie, stating the obvious without even taking herself back like she'd done previously "I saw him when he saw my face just a few hours ago… unless he was pretending to disregard my appearance!"

"Speaking on behalf of him, I sincerely doubt that, but if my word's no good, want to ask him yourself?"

Finally, a question Susie knew was inevitable but at least foreseeable for her. It was here she could reverse the insinuation and use it to her advantage.

"Nah" she replied calmly "I just want you to tell me what you know about him, leave out no details"

Jeremy was really caught off guard there.

"Okay" said Jeremy flabbergasted "There are just so many places to begin and Calvin never really gave me the chance to order them"

"What do you mean?"

"Calvin, get this, is less of an open book and more of a storyboard in the sense of having to be there to think what I'm telling you is anything but complete bullcrap"

Jeremy would be lying if he told her Calvin was more a friend than he was an acquaintance. She was still without prior knowledge of the history which came attached.

"You can't seriously think Calvin is that special. Maybe he was the day we first met, I'm fifteen now, and even I thought that was a long time ago"

"It still doesn't change the truth"

"The truth" restated Susie "You didn't protest when I handed my bargain in the bin, all I want from you is to contribute your share"

Susie was practically dragging Jeremy out of bed. He no longer felt any actual comfort zone from this discussion. He couldn't even bring himself to admit the discomfort of that one day.

"The thing is…I'm always for some reason…reminded of aggressive but tedious arguments couples have every time I think of that day"

"You think about fights the day you met Calvin" said Susie, her curiosity piqued "Did the both of you have one yourself?"

Jeremy shook his head.

She really did reach it this time, his memory's threshold. Jeremy could wish he cared by now.

"Long story short, I met Calvin the day after my girlfriend walked out on me" he replied.

He didn't expect nor need for Susie to express empathy as a proper rebuttal. She did anyway, finding her humanity while she was at it.

"Oh, sorry" she replied "I didn't know"

"You didn't need to" replied Jeremy with a devil may care attitude, suggesting it was his turn for a ride on the déjà vu coaster. "All that mattered was how pissed I was, for just those few seconds, before I met him."

_A cold beer, inches away from Jeremy's reach. This would be the convenient rite of passage for a world of inebriety that he, like any American male, was destined to receive. _

_He couldn't sit there any longer; it wasn't planning to heal his memory any time soon._

_One table, one glass, two different bottles._

_A second litter of Corona for Jeremy._

_Antifreeze._

_The latter wasn't enough to kill him right away._

_But._

_It was, however, enough to make him endure the remaining pain that life would have in store for him in just an hour's worth._

_He would feel like trading a thousand deaths for the only one meant for him._

_Life was all about pain at that moment; it certainly wasn't about sharing it with Sara anymore._

_Morphine for pain, morphine for life._

_Jeremy almost wished he had a third choice of morphine for this situation._

_It was his._

_With just a knock on the door._

_Jeremy suddenly regained part of his conscious effort and made his way to the door._

_He opened the door and his mouth._

_The sight in front of him brought him to a grimmer awareness of pain. It gave his world the second-person experience he was missing out on._

_And yet, he still wished he could ignore it._

"_Help…me" grieved the suffering boy that was Calvin as he clutched on the bloody remains that was half of his right arm's limb._

Obviously it wasn't even a memory anymore.

_Jeremy's life didn't matter anymore. His soul was forever condemned to the underworld of eternal regret, he knew it very much. He didn't care for himself anymore._

_As he helped Calvin, on the verge of passing out, his will to live was lost with something thrice as powerful but less useful._

_His narcissism._

"I had the choice to either send him to the hospital, which was the right one at the time, or fulfill his request of nursing him back to health myself." said Jeremy "He had so much to explain before I asked him why"

"_Outsiders… like you… call it "The Sect"…we call it…the Bilk Division"_

"_The Bilk who did it now?"_

_"I'll explain later, just…_FIND ME SOMETHING TO BITE ON, DAMMIT!

Jeremy didn't even need to finish the complete story. Susie's jaw drop told him she'd heard enough.

"My God" replied Susie in an incompletely harsh whisper "That partially explains the robotic arm"

"As if I hadn't thrown up enough at the MERE sight of that limb!" said Jeremy "He was almost comparable to what happened to that Ralston bloke two years ago"

"But wait! Who built that mechanical arm for him?"

"I did"

"…No seriously, I know you believe me about the martial arts thing, but how do you expect me to believe you about that?"

Jeremy shrugged

"The same way I guess" he replied.

Susie sat up from the covers. She was beginning to get a hint of fear from this. Her world was capable of anything if mechanical arms could be built and actually put to use.

"How is that even possible?" she asked.

"That's what you get for pursuing a career in animatronics at the age of 17" said Jeremy almost audaciously "From then on out, me and Calvin lived together, ever since his parents were annihilated by the Sec…er I mean the division's…"

"It's okay, you can call it…"

Susie's world melted into silence for a while before it splashed upon her without end.

"HIS PARENTS WERE MURDERED? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?"

"SSSSHHH! Around the same time he chopped his arm off" replied Jeremy, trying to calm her down.

Susie's heart almost tried to bounce its way out of her. She tried not to yell but spoke loudly either way in whispers.

"That's HORRIBLE, and only about two months ago!" she said.

"He got used to it pretty soon; he even told me once and me quote, "from the moment he joined the clan, they were less of parents for him than they were targets"" said Jeremy, wondering what that must've felt like for the fifth time "Which surprised me, actually. In fact, he never really shared any emotions when I hung around him past smiles and acting polite…"

"Never?"

"Never till you showed up, in fact, sometimes I get the feeling he's hiding all the hatred…as though he's waiting for his time to come"

Another puzzlement.

"Time?" Susie asked.

"That's all he tells me. He said it once differently, "My time will come, they'll see", maybe he's plotting revenge or something, I don't know"

It was an interesting idea to debate, and Susie was willing to at any time. Maybe now everything was starting to make sense.

"That's probably it, Jeremy" she said, looking down on him "If he said he was happy to have me on his side, maybe he finally snapped out of waiting and is preparing as we speak!"

"Maybe you're right! I DID see him chipper a few hours ago" said Jeremy, before his smile turned into another confused quary "Hold the phone! If you're part of the Sect, why don't you have the lethal tracking apparatus Calvin had before the separate limb of his arm was poisoned?"

_"Those are authorized to wear a device that attaches itself to any wristband for camouflage. Without getting into much detail that may need unnecessary explanation, if you're faithful it lets you live. If you're not, you and or your loved ones die"_

"They're called pagers, and as a subordinate, it's the one rare privilege" replied Susie, haunted to the skin cells on her back. "But it's not as though I wasn't made of reliable material in the Boss's eye overnight!"

Jeremy chuckled. It was truth enough he'd heard everything he'd needed. Susie was all right if a little misguided until you got to know her.

More alike to Calvin than she gave herself praise for.

"And still, you guys are what? The only surviving ex members to leave the sect with your memories unhinged?"

"There was this other guy who also made his way out. A Morton if I remember, just as good of a hacker as Calvin was"

"Did HE manage to remove his Pager?"

"No, but he was able to deactivate the SARS code from the database. Who knows what happened to him"

"Who knows" repeated Jeremy before he yawned.

"well I'm sleepy now"

"Yeah sleep sounds good, night"

"Night"

Jeremy shut off any remaining lights.

Susie got underneath the covers. It was like sleeping on air compared to the rocky surface she'd been coiling on night after night.

She didn't close her eyes as Jeremy obviously wasn't planning on sleep either.

"By the way" he went on "Do you ever plan on telling Calvin who you are?"

Susie couldn't help but turn the lights back on and direct an anxious glare right back at Jeremy.

"No!" she said vehemently albeit still toned down "Not until I find out who the Boss is…If Calvin wants revenge on that maniacal psychopath, I don't want to be the one getting in the way of his help"

Jeremy shrugged. He never knew for sure if Calvin really did want revenge or not. But it was safe to assume the closest than take a wild guess and blame it on the idea, let alone the one who came up with it.

"Sounds fair, I just hope I myself can be of assistance, assuming I know what I can help with"

"We'll see what we can do tomorrow" she said, shutting the lights back down "Goodnight"

"Goodnight...Sue..."

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_I really haven't much to comment. It's clear my story is little by little getting there. Here I'm hoping I've given the characters authentic posts on who they are. If I'm able to submit the next chapters, everything will start getting better now. The second half of the second act will kick in!_

_Later dudes!_


	8. Chapter 7: Foreign Threat

**Chapter 7: Foreign Threat**

Susie let out a small yawn walking down the stairs. On her way to the kitchen, she saw Calvin and Jeremy refused to wait up for her, even though there was a stacking plate of pancakes next to an empty seat adjacent to them.

"Calvin?" asked Susie, expecting the shorter blonde to notice him. Jeremy looked at her instead as Calvin had the higher word.

"Good Morning Sue, if that IS your real name" began Calvin before facing her startled glare. "Just messing with you, how'd you sleep?"

She sat with relief, looking down at the stack of pancakes. Temptation was, by far, the hardest way of hiding willpower.

"Fine, listen, about today-" said Susie before distracting herself with a mouthful of breakfast. Let alone Calvin's unsighted word that came afterwards.

"So you're ready to do it then, to take on the head of state" Calvin said, possibly less than famished himself as he let the rest of his own food lie untouched for the remainder. He wanted to give Susie a time to explain without so much as an appetite standing in the way.

She swallowed before continuing.

"Yeah, that's precisely what I want to talk to you about" she said before noticing the halt mark on Calvin's hand.

The robotic one.

"Save it, the inconspicuous voices from the first half of last night told me enough" said Calvin. Susie redirected her gaze onto Jeremy, who adopted it and shrugged in return. For all she hoped, it was best he didn´t actually spill anything in front of Calvin.

"Wait, so you…"

"Not entirely, though I do know enough" He went on, before taking a bite out of some of the remaining pancakes. This was more or less than a relief for Susie and maybe for Jeremy too.

"Oh…" said Susie, allowing Calvin some time to eat. The pancakes were delicious, even for someone who wasn't used to eating them every week. "but-"

"And not only do I know enough, I HAVE enough" said Calvin as rather than interrupting her with his words, his actions were the cause. "I being WE, needless to say"

Calvin took out from an undisclosed spot an object that took up nearly half the table. A great riffle like firearm that made it seem like it could push anyone across the wall if triggered lied next to the three.

Susie's face was more fascinated than awestruck beyond what Jeremy would've thought.

"…That's not a…" said Susie, nevertheless impressed as anyone else who had the chance of being in the same room with a gun like this.

"Bushmaster ACR with 5.56 Nato caliber? Glad you almost asked" said Calvin, clearly ending his streak of interrupting Susie for once.

"I thought the only ones authorized to hold that kind of maintenance were the military personnel!" said Susie as she studied the gun to make sure Calvin wasn't bluffing, or at least off a centimeter.

"They are" said Calvin, hinting the first mischievous smile Susie ever saw of him after what she could only say was years.

"Calvin didn't mention it, did he?" said Jeremy as he walked towards the stove. There were a set of buttons with ten different digits written on them when he opened it up.

"Mention what?" she asked, thinking the answers were only making things more complicated the longer they delayed leaving.

"The obvious" said Calvin before turning his head around. They both saw before their eyes the stove gradually release what looked like a very long treadmill full of different sizes, shapes and probably descriptions of the weapon Calvin had recently introduced.

Calvin walked towards the treadmill once it stretched far towards the wall.

"Hacking has its benefits when the time is right" said Calvin as he grabbed one of the guns and lock loaded it in its grasp "Creating weapons, on the other hand…"

Susie was in a museum sized black market now. The treadmill had more than just rifles and guns. It had crossbows, bullets, grenades and even fairly huge artillery that she either could not classify or wasn't even meant to be used on humans.

Or any other animal on this planet.

"No way, you've got an in on those" said Susie as she held the compressed pieces together. She was holding more of a controller than the grim reaper's scythe.

"I have just the thing for you" said Calvin as he reached into his pockets.

"But first thing's first"

Susie saw what she could only make out as a M660 Calculator with dual screens and a mast coming out. Calvin looked into it for about a minute, pressing a couple of buttons as it waited for Susie's question.

"What is that? I mean why?" she asked. Susie didn't know and couldn't guess why Calvin held the device up and forward. It could've been radar for all she new, aimed at an invisible presence.

"You want us to go to war with the Bilk Division, right Sue?" began Calvin in a tone she found somewhat imposing.

"Well the headquarters around us were made by hundreds of us during its hatching years. It's more than a decade old now, with ten thousands of us and counting roaming. It's all just addition and subtraction though, there might as well be millions amongst the world, and you know what's still never going to change? The fact I can rig the system unlike anyone else and let the leader know what's coming for them! We'll show you what we're capable of and we'll shut down MORE than just the Sect: we'll shut down whoever they are!"

Susie didn't know what to do with that. Calvin may have been good with words, but he lacked the coherence needed to make them look real. Or maybe it was Susie who needed to see beyond all this.

"You're telling me it like this…why?" she asked, no longer uninformed of the smile Jeremy had. Calvin actually gave Susie a better gaze as he made his reply.

"Because this is a camera" said Calvin, flipping the very device to give Susie a look. Escort by a shock that would spiral over her expectations.

"and the second half of my words weren't directed at you"

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A dozen groups of people concealed with monk attire roamed the abandoned room. It was decorated with countless computer systems and adorned with spare parts of whatever gadgets from game sharks to rumble packs they might've had lying around.

It was like the headquarters of the UN, except only one person sat. The very Boss, with that same Balrog mask concealed in the shades of its hood remained sitting.

It finished taking a quick indulgence over the message it'd glanced by the Samsung plasma.

A member came running into the equally dim room, about to give the message. The Boss begins before its very disciple could deliver.

"Let them go" said the Boss, rising from the throne. "Stopping them would be too easy, let alone having them pass the first of the H.Q.'s unscathed"

The Boss walked out the door. Its room was on the second floor, making the rest of the headquarters mimic the first room of a crowded anthro.

"But Boss, our radars can't pinpoint their location! What if they manage to disrupt the last mainframe?" interrupted the member. It considered itself lucky that the Boss hadn't faced its broad direction.

"They won't go that far" it said, same mechanically inhumane pitch as ever. "They can only try to defeat me"

"But Boss-" said the member, before mercy finally left him on his own

"But silence!" replied the Boss at first, only to abnormally change it. "Member 36, why are you so worried that they're going to jeopardize the Division or not? Has your trust been exchanged for moral intricacy? I can tell you think they're the good guys"

The member was sure it was going to die if the Boss was somehow judging him. It was flipping a coin in its mind without giving him the chance to call it.

"I never said so, Boss!" replied the Member, immediately risking its common sense.

"That explains why you keep thinking they'll win when we, the innocent, are so helpless" replied the Boss.

The member could've gone on, had the Boss not done what it did seconds later. It placed a hand on the members shoulder, as though it wanted to make sure the words sank in. The member could only wait for any other commands the Boss was willing to offer.

"Take this as advice, try not to worry about it, the reason we're the good guys is because we're not about to succumb to vigilante justice and inflict rebellious deeds onto our opponents." said the Boss. In spite of its underworldly pitch, the member couldn't help but feel more comfortable. It was rare to reach its good side on such a disposable situation.

"What if they find a way around the system?" asked the member. The Boss continued its explanation as it walked alongside of the member until they both reached the stairs.

"Since we're the real good guys, we'll follow them and win. The Bilk Division hasn't had a single ex subordinate leave without the proper farewells. Trust me, they won't stand a chance when this is over, got it?"

"I guess" said the member comfortably. The Boss could tell just by the way he worded it that the member was smiling underneath the mask. The Boss retreats its hand in order to confiscate something from the obscurity of its cloak.

"Good, then you'd better make damn sure everyone else did" said the Boss. The member was confused.

"What do you mea-" yet before the member could continue, its arm twitched. For a few seconds, it grasped the weight of pain it was embraced by before falling unconsciously down the stairs.

It caught the other members' attention when they realized what just happened. The Boss leaned one hand over the handrail before revealing the pager with the other.

A few members came up to their deceased comrade lying face down next to the steps. The rest eyed their attention to the most important figure in the building.

"So you will all know the seriousness of my guidance, I'll say this in the language of Nintendo!" began the Boss, its scrambled voice heard across the entirety.

"Jakuten ha, tada shinu tameni junbi shitari kakushi tarisurutameni youisa reteiru nin notamenomonodesu. Inu notameno yochi hanai. Yowai yowamushi notameno yochi hanai! gaatta baai, kono kaisha ha watashitachi niyotte jikkou sareru? Wareware ha, kono ooku no houhou wo okonau kotogadekimasu. Watashi no houhou-" said the Boss before pointing at the body of the member it'd liquidated.

"-MATAHA PASU GA "KAREHA SHIN DEKUSOTTAREDA"! Anatano kettei wo okonau!"

The members that tried to clean out the dead one's corpse disregarded it. Soon, they were all minding their own business, as if they'd been promised a bigger raise than they could get.

The Boss finished as it walked down the stride until it reached the dead member. Another bystander looked at it, waiting to either gain a reply or be threatened to join its colleague if it didn't continue its job.

Neither came.

"I'll be in the Administrator's office" said the Boss as it walked out the closest exit door. Only then was it safe to dispose of another.

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_It's DONE! And I know you're probably not looking for the Japanese translation since you don't care, so here's the original hiragana/kataka/kanji for no real reason:_

_"弱点は、ただ死ぬために準備したり隠したりするために用意されている人のためのものです。犬のための余地はない。弱い弱虫のための余地はない。があった場合、この会社は私達によって実行される？我々は、この多くの方法を行うことができます。私の方法-" said the Boss before pointing at the body of the member it'd liquidated._

_"またはパスが "彼は死んでくそったれだ!" あなたの決定を行う!"_

_From what I see, this story is half finished! I can't believe I actually managed to make it to the first half of the second act! Now hopefully I can make it to the next. Wish me luck!_


	9. Chapter 8: Painful Atonement

**Chapter 8: Painful Atonement**

It was 9 in the morning. The two arrived a couple dozen yards away from an abandoned catholic school hiding behind a few bushes. It was hard to really understand why the establishment went out of business yet they still weren't able to clean it up.

It was the biggest building that could've been spotted amongst the most ignored location in town.

"Are you sure this is the headquarters?" asked Susie, unable to doubt herself with only Jeremy by her side. He took out a pair of binoculars, though Susie didn't know they were superfluously padded with X-ray gear.

"Calvin's the one infiltrating it. If he doesn't give the signal, we'll know we're wrong" said Jeremy as he saw the infrared equals of various members. Monitoring the corridors and guarding entrances.

"Speaking of which, when's the plan supposed to spring into action?" Susie asked, making Jeremy remove his device.

"That's right, quick question: have you ever seen "The Shawshank Redemption"?"

"First Ask me when the last time I saw a movie was"

"No then, anyways, lo and behold" said Jeremy before taking out a small insect from his pocket "I've made them by the millions, not literally of course, just enough of what we need"

Susie saw it. She was used to cockroaches and a few other pests when roaming the streets. The shell on the one Jeremy held suggested it was South American, given it was too big at six inches.

"That's a cockroach" she replied, not that impressed.

"That's right! I know what you're thinking…lest it be vice versa, so why not have both your opponents and your own bated breath take part in the real blast?"

"But we agreed that I was going to be the ones to catch them off guard"

"There's too many of them in there, you can't be alone, their strength will decrease sevenfold once we're evenly matched"

"With roaches?"

"Imagine you're surprise once THEY figure it out!"

"Figure out what?"

A loud screeching noise strong enough for the school to hear erupted around the premises. Calvin's voice came on the line.

"Attention Bilk Division! Be it by choice or against your volition, you have all become unknowing slaves of your own conquest! Trampled in the mud too many times! Compelled to drink the acidic moisture of your sweat for too long! " He yelled, in which a couple of members tried breaching the second floor of the Radio room. They found the door where Calvin was supposed to lecture amongst the many rooms within the halls.

"Have you forgotten, gotten accustomed to and enjoyed the taste or do you find yourselves worthy enough to receive this white dove you so rightfully deserve to call salvation? This dawn I bring you the sunrise of a new option! Once my voice becomes inaudible and you are left with nothing more than a mere soundtrack, heed that as your final warning. Leave and rid yourself of this upcoming fury. Stay and allow your sins to be the subject of painful atonement-"

When they opened the door, they saw the room was empty, with the exception of a particular Walkie-talkie next to the microphone.

"-until the end the judgment night!" finished Calvin, appearing out of the blue and next to Susie.

"Whoa, hey Calvin" said Susie, shocked as before.

"Didn't Jeremy tell you, Sue?" said Calvin, crossing his arms astutely "Save the applause for the end"

Calvin was finished, which was when the music began playing. Some recognized it as "The Devil's Cry" by Montek. It began growing at the same rate of its quantity of listeners. Only thirteen or twenty could catch the flute music, then from fifty and seventy managed to reach the dismal choir of angelic harpies. It began growing until at half a minute into the song, the entire school could hear it.

A couple of members, perhaps the few twenties that heard the song when it first came, ran in fear. The rest treated it like freedom, delicious rain, spreading their arms until every millimeter soaked them in their entirety.

Then the song's first minute ended, and so did its approach. The members didn't have a chance to notice it when their second distraction came.

Roaches, swarming by the hundreds.

Some members tried shooting at them, others tried to take them off their skin. It was as if Joe's Apartment***** was an intended nightmare for the rest of its demographic.

"Ah! These roaches don't belong here!" said one member as it managed to conceal one of the filthy beetles between it fingertips.

However, the member saw this roach was far from ordinary. It looked closely at its thorax before asking.

"Wait just a millisecond…"

The last thing the member noticed was the robotic timer attachments set to 0:01.

"OH MY-!"

Suddenly, a loud explosion came, followed by even more. One or two of the school's walls shattered, making the members who guarded the outskirts jump for cover. Jeremy tilted his head towards the direction as he was first to walk out of the bushes. Susie and Calvin followed. They stopped across a ramp facing the stained glass window.

"Your signal, go!"

Susie took the Sig from her rucksack out and breathed heavily.

_The innocent aren't young anymore._

The fireworks on earth began, cuing Susie's descent into her trancelike precision. The stained glass window was her target; she turned completely around before running backwards. As she got closer, her heartbeat increased like a number multiplied by its theta principle.

_Steal a soul for a second chance  
>But you will never become a man<br>My chosen mojo makes me stronger  
>In a life that craves the hunger<br>A Freedom and a quest for life_

One heartbeat per second, two heartbeats, three, four. By the time her heartbeat stopped for only a fraction of a second, she jumped.

Susie shattered the twenty foot high stained glass winder into many pieces as she continued spinning in midair upside down until performing two flips, and landing crouched down on her feet.  
><em><br>Until the end the judgment night.  
><em>  
>The shards reflected her split image onto the members it landed on. It more than distracted, blurring their vision from the misty bomb smoke, and another heaping dose of Susie's bullets.<p>

Susie did anything other than mere running, and even more than shoot members trying to get at her. She cross hatched her arms as she aimed for more of the obstacles emerging from the newly forming ruins.  
><em><br>Stepping forth a cure for soul's demise  
>Reap the tears of the victim's cries<br>Yearning more to hear the suffer  
>Of a demon as I put it under<br>_  
>She shot anything in sight as well as crossing her path, making way for the bullets, dodging them as she ran and made sure the dark brown smoke in front of her faded with every gunpoint.<p>

_Killed before, a time to kill them all  
>Passed down the righteous law<br>Serve a justice that dwells in me_

Two members came her way with Berettas as she attempted to reload. She ducked as they shot twice before sliding some magazines out of her pocket and throwing them parallel to each other right at their face, knocking them out. The magazines echoed back at Susie's direction, who quickly dropped her Sig and took out her Colt guns for the bullets to land.

_LIFELESS CORPSE AS FAR AS_ THE EYE CAN SEE!

The smoke was even less visible in one of the purgatory halls as she made her way there. And just like her, it would make its way there, keeping members busy. It was literally a convention going up in enough smokes to surround the next member that came up to her with the idea to counterattack.

_THE EYE CAN SEE!  
>THE EYE CAN SEE!<br>THE EYE CAN SEE!  
>THE EYE CAN SEE!<em>

The Comicon was under terrorist smolder. She barely even needed her pistols amongst a plethora of blinded members. She didn't have time to reckon it was over but rather unplugged a grenade and threw it straight on.

The deafening explosion made it safe to pass then as she exited the Hall. When she entered the hall, she stopped. A member blocked the middle of the hall, motionless by her presence.

_The eye can see_

For the first time since she began this spree, Susie didn't need to feel fear to know it. Too many members were on the brink of annihilating her for her being. She used to be one of them.

This member perhaps had second thoughts about staying behind to protect The Bilk Division's title. If she wasn't on the right side now, she would've killed him or her, unarmed and all.

_Bless me with the  
>Leaf off of the tree<br>On it I see  
>The freedom reign<em>

Susie ran past the member, leaving it to look back. She was now making her way towards the chapel, probably what made up half of the premises with a towering length.

_We are falling_  
><em>The light is calling<em>  
><em>Tears inside me<em>  
><em>Calm me down<em>

Her earphone came on as she made it halfway to the turn of the hall.

"Sue! Are you there? This is Calvin, over!"

"Roger, I'm on my way there, over and out"

It was really going to happen as far as she could tell. If everything went right, the next door would lead to a bridge like walkway connecting to the chapel.

_Midnight calling, mist of resolving  
>Crown me, with the pure green leaf<em>

The song was practically over. She hid beside the blind spot of the contiguous hall before reloading.

_Praise to my father, blessed by the water_  
><em>Black night, dark sky, the devil's<em> cry

Susie approached the two members. Her luck told her they were unarmed like the one she spared a moment ago.

But that wasn't their ticket out.

She took hold of one by the neck and looked at his partner, removing his mask to make sure they both were equals in afflict. Now that she could see his face, she knew he might want a bathroom break after this.

"Where is the boss?" Susie asked, punching the member in the face. The other tried not to let his sympathy shrink.

"Where is the boss?" Susie repeated, with another blow to the forehead. The other member flinched when its head twitched.

Susie asked it in a singsongy voice the third time.

"Where…is…the bo-oss?"

TWACK!

The member reached its verge of collapse. It pointed its gloved index finger towards the door it was guarding. Susie released the member, opened the door and walked past it.

It was exactly what she expected.

This connection between the previous path and the Boss' lair reminded her a lot about the last minute savings and recoveries any protagonist would make before confronting the one Boss. Her hope being this wouldn't be necessary.

If the Boss knew what was good for it, Susie would win. It was all the confidence she needed.

Susie opens the door.

She saw how much of a wreck this church was left. Corridors of seats were broken; cobwebs barely recoiled at the wind's entrance that came with Susie's. As an agnostic, this was a relatively spare experience for her to fathom.

Took every step, there was something new to discover. Pages of Hymn books lied on the ground, paler than even the wettest cardboard.

A page fell off, flowing into one of the seats. Once it landed with its featherlike stance, the chairs broke down into pieces. Susie jumped for that split moment.

"Who'da thought The Sect knew how to recycle nineteenth century decor" she said, before reaching the altar.

An orange cat sat on the Bishop's chair, licking its paws.

"Kawai, an orange tabby, here kitty…" said Susie as she tried getting near it.

The cat opened its eyes, looks directly at Susie, who reached out her hand. She waited for the cat to at least smell it. It was, for Susie's assumption, the most normal thing to do.

"Who are you supposed to be?"

Susie walks a foot away swiftly. Whoever said that must've been close by. She didn't want to be taken as an idiot, but only the cat was looking at her, almost past her.

It was bound to happen, no matter who believed it impossible.

"Okay…you're a cat…and you can talk…" said Susie, crouching over "Without even moving your mouth?"

It was a discovery that amazed her beyond what she'd seen these past couple of days. Robotic arms and roaches were due to science. This suggested she might've died and gone to another dimension.

One that didn't make sense in the world she formerly inhabited.

"Communicate telepathically much?" the echoing voice from the cat asked.

"No, I don't"

"I didn't think you would, anyone whose part of a text messaging species hasn't the ability to do much between more open minded fields. Kind of makes me one ounce more grateful to be a cat sometimes"

"How're you doing that? It's not natural for any animal"

"How do YOU know? Everything you're saying isn't valid up to here"

"Enouch chitchat, where's the high boss?"

"The pointless wordplay never stops, maybe you ought to analyze your thoughts first"

The cat was now testing Susie's patience. It wanted to see her crack, to remove her entrails and watch her vomit the emotions on its face.

"LISTEN YOU MANGY FELINE! I just took down about eighty or more of your drones outside in less than the time it took me to get here!" bellowed Susie, pulling out her colt to aim at the anthropomorphic animal. "Now you're going to tell me where the real boss is right now!"

The cat, however plausible it might've been, grabs a helmet-like device and places it on its head.

"Sigh, all right, here's the deal: I'm the High Boss, I can easily wipe you out of the face of this corp., pretty much own you if that's what man says nowadays"

Susie could do nothing more than continue aiming the colt at it. The cat had a way with toying with her as it waited.

"If you're looking for a final confrontation, can't say it was in vain"

To Susie's surprise, the ground starts to rumble, and then she saw everything. A sea of mice began to come out of the wall at which the cat's back was faced. They enveloped it, in which Susie thought they were lunching on him violently.

Instead, they begin to pile up, reaching a greater size until they reached half the height of the already towering chapel.

"The REAL Boss said it would've made a slick of a lot more sense if I'd let the mice kill you, but where's the fun in all that?" said the cat, whose splitting image made up a giant version of itself thanks to the millions of mice.

Susie ran back as the giant catlike figure heaved itself like a treadmill.

"See what happens with a little unity and a heaping dose of hard work to go with that? One of the many feats you humans fail at to this day!"

Susie hides behind one of the endless seats. She knew this was too silly to call it a nightmare, so there wasn't a reason to fear whatsoever.

"Think again before running and hiding, little girl, these mice are part of me, but they yearn to finish you off just as much" said the colossal mass.

Then something occurred to Susie: He Uncle John.

She once swore he owned a cat and a dog and one of them spoke in thought. But could it be? The thought almost killed her as she ran towards a support beam.

As she hid, something more came to her: Jeremy never had time to tell her about his Culinary major.

"No wonder Uncle John gave you up, Garfield" Susie said as she took a cuboid shape object wrapped in aluminum foil out of her rucksack. "Most cats are way more finicky"

Susie departed her hiding place, allowing the mouse-made colossus to approach her and raise its paws.

Susie dodged the next blow and approached Garfield's real body. She waited for the behemoth to sight her before unwrapping part of the tinfoil.

Garfield could see it was cheese on the inside.

"Oh look, cheese. Because mice like it more than anything, right? You people are even more pathetic without speaking-"said Garfield before Susie broke it off by unwrapping it even further. To Garfield's shock, cheese was just the first ingredient.

"Eat lasagna, Garfield!" bellowed Susie as she stuffed the dismal fare into his mouth. The real Garfield couldn't tell if what he was feeling was real or if the mice were making it an illusion.

Eitherway, the behemoth counterpart could never resist as it ran towards the tiny scapegoat. Susie backed away as far as she could.

"I hate Mondays…" said the cat before his own giant reflection plunged mouth open and crushed him with thousands of mice.

They devoured the animal's remains and even began to scatter, leaving behind bones. Most of them went their separate ways while others didn't know where to go to start with.

"Well that helped" said Susie as she watched them disperse. Her earphones made a static noise before coming on.

"Did you get the Boss? Over" asked Calvin's voice. Susie almost thought she was on this alone.

"Negative and out" replied Susie, looking around her surroundings "Ugh, what kind of cat likes rodents anyways?"

"It's not so much of the cat rather than the real boss, you see, The High one itself has a thing for-"

Susie was amazed at how much Calvin was able to make her stand. She should've asked for a whistle to warn he on anything that wasn't good news.

"This WASN'T who we're after?" bellowed Susie "Good God, how hard is it to find that one person anyway? Busting it off to kill all these pawns is a strain to the bone!"

Susie sat on one of the chairs, regardless of whether it was going to pulverize itself.

"I don't think that will be necessary"

A different voice this time. For all Susie knew it was one of the mice. Let alone the one that crawled all the way to her side.

She looked to her right and saw the tiny rodent standing upright on top of a Hymn book.

"Garfield really had us risking too much for his fur, if we can ever thank you properly"

Susie didn't want to think of surprises anymore. She smiled, realizing how opportunities and shortcuts were the real surprise all along.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_*****Joe's Apartment is this movie that came out in 1996 or so about this guy who lives with a bunch of talking/singing cockroaches. I don't remember much of it except that…well; there were roaches that displayed the qualities of humans. I'd see it again if anyone else remembered it. XP_

_Thus, this is where shit finally starts happening. It's nonsensical, I know, but it was still quintessential for the story. If anyone likes action movies, I could recommend anyone the best which have inspired me to write all this ("Wanted" and "Snatch" to name a few)._

_Until the next chapter, later!_


	10. Chapter 9: Psychic Rodents

**Chapter 9: Psychic Rodents**

Susie held her palm out to represent the small animal. Calvin and Jeremy glanced in awe. They believed less than what they saw.

"A mouse?" asked Jeremy rhetorically, clearly the first to accept disbelief. "Dude, Android roaches are a highly different subject, they have an explanation. A MOUSE! LET ALONE ONE THAT DOESN'T MOVE ITS LIPS!"

Susie scowled.

"They call him Ignatz, and is this really comparably irrational to children who can build an entire advanced system way beyond adult capacity?" asked Susie.

"Does he know who the real boss is?" asked Calvin.

"We know someone who does, actually" said Ignatz, in which Calvin looked back with even more awe.

"Whoa, that mouse really DID talk!" said Calvin, smiling in return.

"Not the way you think, or in this case speak" replied Susie.

"Telepathy, it's nice to see we're living in a post-Xmen world yet apparently the only evolved beings around here are the ones supposedly smarter than us according to Douglas Adams" added Jeremy, undaunted to hide his lack of impression.

"Okay boys, let's try focusing on the real important matters right now: locating the Real Boss' hideout." said Susie.

Calvin knew it was all making sense all of a sudden. The thought of having a psychic mouse on their team would prove an easier way out if they knew how to take advantage of their time.

Let alone the obvious shortcuts that didn't look that way.

"Wait" said Calvin "Don't you get it? This is the Bilk Division! It's all about the video games. That's why the first HQ didn't give us anything for starters"

"What do you mean?" asked Ignatz.

"What's the biggest cliché found in every single video game structure known to man?" asked Calvin.

It had been a long time since any of them actually grabbed a joystick or logged in to anything more practical. Video games were the exact opposite of having a life if they knew what was good for them. Especially Calvin, who once lost himself in an unreal world long enough ago.

"You mean action-adventure, RPG, First person shooter-?" asked Jeremy, giving up when Ignatz interjected.

"As far as what's known, the hero living a normal life when all of a sudden-"

"- An arbitrary turn of events forces them to take a journey meant to resolve the dilemma they were burdened with! I GET IT!" said Susie.

This might've been what the plan was looking for all along. The Boss was clever enough for anything, especially concerning the gambit of leading them to its grasp in any way possible. They had to be much cleverer if they were to succeed.

"Get what?" asked Jeremy.

"The Boss WANTS us to find her or him: It's a trap!" said Susie "It might even be a red herring if we don't keep our guard up"

Soon it made sense just how Jeremy was holding up. It took him more than just the events he'd gone through with them to leave his trust out.

"What else you suggest we do? No use calling it revenge if all we're doing is sitting here whilst that Boss continues to strangle the last breath off the rest of us." He said.

"Okay, don't fret, Jeremy, the option is very obvious: What the Boss wants is for us to fall into its mark, so why not swap?" replied Calvin.

"You're saying we lead it towards us?"

"He's saying we need to find its weakness!"

"But Sue, how do we know the Boss even has one?"

"I had a chat with it, once, back when I was still interviewed, it discussed with me how ideas were its prized possessions" she replied as she laid Ignatz down. "Maybe we can locate some sort of limitation as a separate object containing said hint and lure it right at us."

Jeremy looked down at the mouse. He crossed his arms, wondering if he was the only one who thought bringing a potential suspect was begging them for failure.

"Okay, I get it, we're looking for its vulnerability points, assuming it even has them" said Jeremy "Explain how we know where they are?"

The mice laid eyes on him, letting him know he was also inside the circle and open to ideas.

"That's where I come in" said Ignatz "My team has access to coordinates from another set of headquarters. Let them do the rest and we'll locate the paraphernalia stat"

"Is that where we'll find The Boss' weakness?" he asked.

"That's where we'll be able to pinpoint one of the higher subordinates with access to all the deep sidetracked data within the Bilk Division's database"

"Soooooooooooooo…is that a yes or a no, will we find the blackmail or will we keep on searching?"

"Didn't you listen to what he said? The guy we'll be looking for knows where the evidence lies" retorted Susie.

Jeremy took a great amount of breath, now nearly annoying everyone else.

"How can I listen to him if he speaks with his head? Is that a yes or no?" asked Jeremy intolerantly.

"Both or neither! Yes that'll propel us one step closer to finding The Boss' weakness, NO that's not the exact location to where it's hidden! Need I repeat myself or is it easier if I MOUTH the words for you?" replied Ignatz in an almost threatening tone.

Jeremy only looked at the rest of his comrades. They clearly didn't seem even the slightest perturbed by the mouse's edge, even when they should be.

He needed a moment of real indulgence for at least one of them to see it through his suspicion.

"Sue, um, a quick word please" said Jeremy as he motioned a finger at Susie, who just like Calvin and Ignatz, felt weirded out.

Nevertheless did she follow him. They were about three yards away from the other two before Jeremy began.

"I'm just curious that's all, but what did this rodent say when you asked it how you can trust him?" asked Jeremy. Susie gave him a puzzled tude.

"What are you talking about? You know I never asked him!" she replied.

"Ah, no wonder! I take it it's just cause he's a…what's that word I'm looking for? Right, A FUCKING MOUSE!" asked Jeremy spastically "Does that involuntarily qualify him as a trustworthy soul? For all we know, this could be exactly like The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and Mickey here might be on to us"

"You can't prove that, he's the only hope we've got to finding The High Boss' weak point!"

"Convenient, isn't it? Would you promise me I can betray you back if he overthrows us?"

Now Susie was contaminated with Jeremy's sour doubt.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Susie, though Jeremy knew it was rhetorical.

"I'm saying we might've already found our red herring the size of a red hammer driver!"

"Ssshhhhh! The Mouse is psychic, remember? He could probably hear you right now!"

Jeremy and Susie turn around arbitrarily. They see Ignatz returns the gaze innocently yet kindly. Jeremy was the first to look away.

"Not even looking at us" replied Jeremy smugly.

"Exactly! Doesn't that show we can trust him enough?"

"What? But…I don't know!"

"Neither do I! All I know is that he's the only option we have of reaching the high boss, we need him more than anything right now"

" Okay, but just remember, I'm calling it quits if he stabs us in the back!"

"He's not stabbing us!"

There wasn't a reason to judge the possibilities without putting them to exercise. Susie wasn't the kind who believed measuring them was going to be as fair as actually putting them into practice. She knew Jeremy was less prone to getting the most out of danger or risks if it meant a haunting possibility it would all fail.

"Whatever!" said Jeremy as he walked back to the group.

Later that day, Jeremy came up to a building aping the Wall Street edifice in deliveryman attire and hoisting an enormous box on a wheel cart. He passed through the automatic doors and came as far as what were two members could spot him.

It was like any entrance hallway, containing nothing more than a service booth in the center and two elevators on both sides of the walls at the very end.

"Special delivery!" bellowed Jeremy. The member guards were on to his fraud.

"Who sent you?" asked one of the two members in the service booth, raising his gun.

Jeremy didn't know if he was doing a good job. His inability to sweat at this might've been helping.

"Why?" he asked, before noticing the member tilts his head downward. He had to think something quick before more suspicion arose.

"What's in the box?" the member asked.

"I don't know…" said Jeremy, getting it at last. "But I can guarantee you, there ain't a person"

Jeremy waited to see if the members were as gullible as they appeared. The both seemed to read his mind as one of them laughed.

"Haha, why should we believe you?" asked the member on the left. This didn't seem to shock Jeremy, on the other hand as he'd prepared for the occasion.

"Because it would need air holes for someone to survive in their" he replied, reaching for his pants.

"No it wouldn't" said the both "Yeah right!"

The two members were in for a demonstration when Jeremy released a liability to his theory. A whole Tommy gun rested in his grasp, giving members the idea he was about to bring them down like flies.

Rather that, he pins the barrel onto the box and pulls the trigger. Countless bullets rage throughout with heavy noise, making some members close their ears.

The box was easily reduced to a brown giant Swiss cheese. The members remained, nearly shaken at the Styrofoam leaking out of the cardboard. Jeremy just waited a few seconds before talking.

"Hm, guess its true" he said, taking out a clipboard and a pen "Sign here, please"

The members didn't even look at each other, rather instead gave the same reply.

"Sure"

They both took hold of the clipboard, whereas only the one on the left held a pen and signed the single paper. The other grasped the clipart and gave it back to Jeremy, who read it thoroughly.

"Very good" said Jeremy, before looking up for a wooly reason "Sue!"

They had no time to feel perplexed when she emerged from between them and tapped both their shoulders. They turn around before she knocks them out and shoots the rest of the guards.

Susie looks back at Jeremy before running towards the elevator.

"You take care of the fourth quadrant, I'll head upstairs" said Susie as the doors closed.

Jeremy stood there. He looked behind himself as he did in front, making sure there was nobody else on the brink of a surprise attack. Not that he was any vulnerable with a weapon around, there was just so much left to doubt.

"My parents warned me I'd end up in janitor attire, but I forgot!" said Jeremy to himself. "And by forget I mean ignored them completely"

Susie cracked her knuckles as she saw the third floor pass before the next.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Back in a headquarter-like hideout, some of the members were more worried than usual. One got completely ecstatic once he saw the High Boss enter through the front door.

It would've been wrong to assume it was as worried as anyone else, but he wouldn't know.

"High Boss" began the member "We have to do something, they're killing the other leaders off like rabbits-"

The Boss clicks on a pager, in which the member falls to the ground cringing for the seconds he had left to move.

"Anyone else wish to tell me something I don't know? He sure didn't!" said the boss as it opened the door to its room "Maybe I should: These adversaries are doing nothing more than putting us to the test. Why should I have to kill the rest of you when they're doing it for me?"

The boss entered its office, letting the rest of the members recoil in even more of the same.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

It was the fourth floor at last. Susie walked out of the elevator with the expectation this looked like any set of hallways reminiscent to a maze found in offices.

She stopped as soon as she came up to the hallway leading to the Boss' door.

The left and white walls were adorned with the mounted heads of random animals. Indeed, Susie walked close to see there was one of a goat, a pig, two crocodiles, and even a zebra and a duck wearing a combat helmet.

If this was really the boss' layer, Susie would know.

She opened the door to see what she couldn't have assumed was anything more than any other office. Susie saw it was empty, so she tried to look around.

Then a noise made her stop halfway.

"What took you?" said the rat, lying on a bookend on the topmost shelve to Susie's right. Susie looked up at it, and smirked

"You didn't know I was coming!" she replied.

The Rat fell down onto the desk. Its casual nature still suggested it was on to something, as the ever alert Susie saw he opened another mantelpiece.

"Ya'll's are trespassing, that's as far as I know" said Rat as he continued to search "Then again, I need to get out more often"

Around the time she was still a subordinate, Susie was used to this kind of stalling. It was one of the many things that worked for her from the Boss' evil jaws: patience was an obstacle you had to disguise as a virtue.

"I'll say!" she replied.

Rat stopped searching and finally came across what she was looking for inside that cupboard. He rested his paws on it, leaving Susie to wonder if she should walk closer to take a better peek.

"Don't tell me, I'm psychic like that!...Ignatz brought you here" said Rat, closing the cupboard and turning around. "Probably to die"

"You're all bark and no bite, rat. At times I wonder if you even count as a rodent"

"Raw, unkind words from a latter trophy on the Boss' doorstep, I'm just an individual living it up in a world that tolerates Crappy employees like Stephen Pastis as much as excess of videogames"

Susie went out on a limb and walked even closer to Rat. She slid her shirt up to reveal the slipped sig within her torso.

"How do those traits make any person an individual?" asked Susie, putting his so-called psyche to the test.

"I see your point" said Rat as he held a dagger on his back; Susie saw the reflection on time from the portrait behind him.

"But for starters, I'm not a PERSON!"

Rat threw the dagger at her direction. The speed was enough to graze an inch of her hair, removing the cowlick she had in the front.

"Whoa! Take it easy!" said Susie, "Don't blame me, I enjoy bloodshed as much as anyone, not that I'm here to kill you!"

"That makes ONE!" said Rat, throwing another dagger, this time pinning Susie by her shirt sleeve "I never lived for third or second jobs. Then The High Boss offered me something, it has a thing for rodents by the way"

Rat came close enough to stop Susie from removing the dagger by pinning the other sleeve down.

"I know how you feel" said Susie, a few inches away from the megalomaniac's face "I think you should know the Boss lives for recruiting those it'll get rid of anyway"

Rat took out a blade big enough to cut an orange this time. Susie knew Rat was dangerously close.

"What makes you so sure I'm one of them?"

"I get rid of them for it"

Rat raised the spear, and throws it down at Susie's direction. At the last millimeter away from her touch, Susie head butts Rat out of her side.

Soon Rat began to see everything too blurry, even the image of Susie taking out a seedlike object from her knapsack before passing out.

When he woke up, Rat felt he couldn't move. And when his vision wasn't blurry anymore, the ropes he was tied with were finally visible.

"What the-?" he said before Susie interjected.

"Face it, Rat. If the Boss knew I was going to kill you, it wouldn't have hired you for all that trade" said Susie "Not to mention entrust you with the location to its one sole weakness"

Rat's eyes became as wide as his ears. He barely knew this creature and she dared disclose the one job he was sure to carry out just like that.

"How did you know?" asked Rat.

Susie crouched down so as to look at the little mammal face on once again. Hopefully this was becoming easier by the second.

"You tell me, maybe Ignatz didn't bring me here to die" said Susie, before grasping the rodent by his chest "Looks like you're not so psychic after all"

Rat shook his head begrudgingly. He never got the chance to see if she was either the vigilante or brutally heroic type. It didn't make sense to keep him this way, so he took a nab at the latter.

"You're wasting your time, kid. For all I know, the brick throwing excuse for a rodent might be pulling your leg as we speak" said Rat, in which Susie let go of him "Try Borris Lane, 128"

Rat's shock came back when he saw Susie grab hold of his blade. Maybe he should've opted for the vigilante type instead.

"That's it?" asked Susie, before untying Rat with the blade "How challenging"

Rat knew he was alive, yet wondered if she really was going to spare him. To him, it wasn't just Susie turning around that took to convince him.

"You're not going to kill me?" he asked. Susie didn't even bother looking back.

"All taken care of" she said as she revealed the pill and threw it over her shoulder "Just to save the Boss the effort and you the trauma"

Rat looked down at his feet as he freed himself from the loose shackles. The very capsule looked less like arsenic than it did something more harmless than aspirin.

"So…there isn't any pain?" said Rat, taking hold of the blade. Susie didn't even hear him get up.

"Nope" she said, continuing her walk towards the door.

Rat saw she was indeed careless on whether he would spare her now that he wasn't on the same page. He jumped onto her shoulder and raised the knife once again.

The knife was even less of an inch away from her head when he stopped, and fell headfirst into the ground. A brisk seizure followed, pain being one of the factors.

"Though I can't speak for the side effects" Susie said as she stopped for a moment.

Susie saw how Rat finally stopped moving. However he didn't die right away. Instead, Rat slowly began to dissolve into the wind like sand. Susie turned back away, trying her best to feel unmoved.

"You may be able to prolong your life, but it's not like you can escape your inevitable death, is it?" asked Rat teasingly, the bottom half of his body almost invisible "How pathetic, I would've asked for its true identity"

Susie almost closed the door, but Rat's last words make her turn back to him, who was still slowly dissolving. She grabbed the remainder of his arms.

"You know it?" she asked anxiously "Tell me, TELL ME RIGHT NOW!"

Rat smiled before laughing. only his head remained to evaporate.

"Sorry" said Rat's mouth before it released a smirk as it dissolved into the Air conditioner's dense breeze "I'm dead"

The rodent was no more. All Susie could think of was how some things could've been easier if she had the right perspective.

The Boss could have a more contemptible weakness if she knew what it was.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Jeremy stood guard, waiting to see if anyone was heading his direction. None of the other members seemed remotely conscious so maybe he was right.

It all changed when he heard a noise from behind.

"Jeremy?"

Jeremy turned around. Nothing was seen, until he looked down to his feet level. Ignatz stood there as innocently as any anthropomorphic being.

"Oh, you" said Jeremy, looking away coldly "What do you want?"

"You don't trust me right now; we're in the middle of a defining battle between the forces of moral egotism and ethical corroboration, I can see that"

"I'll ask again, what do you want?"

Jeremy didn't know yet that one of the members a couple of yards away regained consciousness and heard the first half of the conversation. He noticed they weren't looking at him, so he pointed the gun at Jeremy.

"Nothing, I just want to tell you something" said Ignatz, before looking past Jeremy.

"Okay, so come on! I haven't-"

A loud bang interjected his words. So did a floating bullet and the same member pointing the gun at Jeremy. At first he's paralyzed, but then sees something even more gruesome happen: the member's head explodes. After that, Jeremy turns around to see the mouse's eyes glowing.

" That…was pretty cool man!" said Jeremy, making Ignatz's eyes cease the glow.

"What? Exploding heads?" asked Ignatz

"Saving my life, Man…thanks"

"You're welcome; I just want to help in any way"

Seconds passed, and Jeremy finally saw the advantage of accepting strangers into his circle. Even if they weren't human.

"So what did you want to tell me?"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_That's all I have for now. I think I got a bit too carried away with this chapter. Really, the final draft of it is actually two thirds its original size. I'll have to submit the last third as a separate chappie. Like I always say, if I can get this to finish, I can get it to finish._

_Farvél!_


	11. Chapter 10: Bitter Doubt

**Chapter 10: Bitter Doubt**

Calvin sat down on a bench within a park just a couple of blocks away from the second headquarters. He had the same tracking device in his hands. With any hope, there might be a chance the Boss would think this was too much and surrender.

Susie came walking towards him as he yielded the attempt.

"How's it feel?" she asked as she sat down, starring at his arm.

"What?" asked Calvin, without turning to face her.

"To have the, um…" Susie motioned her finger at Calvin's mechanical limb. Calvin looked at her this time.

"Oh, the arm" he replied, moving it around as if trying to break it in "It's not easy, but I got used to it"

Susie found herself in the same place she was a decade ago. Most reunions were this way, with the sole exception of only Calvin forgetting her true identity.

The fact he was unaware of whom she really was, assuming he even remembered her existence, made it the more special. She would play along for the thrills.

"Jeremy told me all about you" she said "To keep it short, he said you were once very shy before you saw me"

Calvin couldn't help but raise concern with this indictment. He barely knew who she was, or at least he thought he did, and already she seemed to connect with him so easily.

"Ah yeah, psaw. What does he know?" Calvin replied sheepishly "Jeremy thinks I saved his life only because he saved mine!"

"But you DID!" replied Susie "You saved him! He was about to kill himself before you showed up!"

Susie took the chance to scoot closer to him. He wasn't looking at her, so it was hard for her to see him well.

Maybe she was getting too fond of his company.

"Like he didn't have a choice!" replied Calvin, turning the device off "Everyone always blames fate for such an obvious coincidence! The truth is my problem was bigger than his!"

Calvin faced Susie after those last two words. For the oddest reason, Susie felt frillier inside than she ever did within the company of a person before.

"How did you know he wasn't going to do it?" she asked, trying not to smile if the moment was unsullied.

"I don't know, I never thought about the possibilities" said Calvin "After I joined the Bilk Division, my figurative mindset could roam freely for all I cared. It felt like for the first time since I remember, I could travel as far as I wanted without flirting with borderline autism. I was sharing my imagination with the uninitiated, not using it to lock myself in a prison of my own denial"

This was as far as she could do without keeping herself faithful to apathy. She had less of a reason to worry than Calvin did to continue the mission right now. She wished she only had to sit there and look at him.

But at the risk of him looking back and finding it awkward, there wasn't an option. She had to stoop to Jeremy's level of interrogation if she was to keep this winning privilege.

"That sounds weighty" she asked "So why did you leave?"

Calvin looked at her, reading her procedure that made her feel the doubt. Maybe she wasn't as good at this as Jeremy was.

Still, she couldn't help but stare into his eyes. They were almost as blue as dusk.

"Actually, knowing who you are more than me, let me ask you something: What's it like to kill someone?"

Now it seemed as though Jeremy tried to live on in Calvin this time. The difference was it didn't bother Susie in the least, given that she knew Calvin for a longer time.

They were practically closer friends given the circumstances.

"Do you want a unique answer?"

"Whatever floats your boat"

"It's not easy, but I got used to it"

Calvin smiled and let out a waning chuckle. Susie hoped she wasn't blushing at that moment, no matter how heavy her face's temperature seemed by the second.

"Which reminds me" said Calvin, turning away to think a little "Why'd you spare my life?"

The mention of that phrase made her feel like something she could never be: a heroine. In Susie's reality, she could never be a heroine; she could only atone for being a villain.

She was so tempted to accept this without denying it was far from true.

"It's just something I felt was right" she said.

Calvin shook his head.

"Nah, I think it has to do with much more than that" said Calvin, giving Susie's vision of the real deal.

"_Wait, I'm supposed to be dead by now!"_

"_What's your name?"_

"_Does it matter if you're going to kill me otherwise?"_

"_No, so spit it out!"_

" _Calvin, what's it to you?-"_

"Did you like me or something?" asked Calvin, waking Susie from the trance. It all seemed like yesterday, making it a liability to her speed. She was incapable to answer that question too easily.

"I was just curious" she said, knowing it still wouldn't get to Calvin.

"Your gesture looked like you were shocked"

"I wasn't!"

"Then what did you see in me? Why, out of all the members you've killed in the past, out of all that disposable simplicity, some which was way more worthy than I ever was, why choose me?"

He got her there. Maybe it was time she opened up more to earn his empathy. It would be nice to start over, even if it meant erasing Susie from the board to make way for Sue.

"I've never met anyone who didn't complain at all in death's row" she began "As smart as we are, we're still children, that means we're still born with an unavoidable fear of death"

Calvin nodded, and then looked away for one moment.

"I stopped fearing death when I realized it was going to happen anyway"

"It's not as easy for those yet to come"

"Yeah" said Calvin.

Susie looked away. At first she thought friendship was all that was necessary from this deal. Now she wasn't sure if a stronger bond was capable of squeezing through.

"You know Sue, I don't think I've ever met someone like you" replied Calvin.

She was positive there was blushing this time. Hopefully, Calvin wasn't staring in her general direction. She just had to be honest, but through it, blend her own word patterns.

"What makes you say that?" she asked before looking back.

"You're the bravest girl I've ever met" he admitted "I'm too scared to fire a gun"

"But not to hold one! Besides, didn't you design the…Spiffweiser 360?" said Susie, unable to keep herself from smiling.

"Actually, Jeremy designed it; I just helped with the name" said Calvin, gesturing the Gun's size with his hands "It IS a cool rifle though, the first of its kind. Quadruple barrel, diffused direction, simply…the works!"

It was an even bigger privilege for Susie to keep this smile as she focused on this kind of small talk. She didn't have to admit she had a crush on him as long as it was true.

"Oh yeah, Spiff. That's such a fun name" she replied.

"Yeah, I don't know where I ever came up with it, though"

"I do"

"What?"

Susie almost went past her word of relinquishing her past. The more of a mystery it stayed, the likelier it would be forgiven and thus disappear. That way, she could have Calvin to herself and keep him away from the same surprises she had both sailed through and was yet to see.

"OH! Um, nothing…um" she said, trying to change the subject, albeit weakly "Why aren't you so afraid of death, again?"

Calvin looked away effortlessly, shrugging along with his reply.

"What's there to fear about a long awaiting deadline?" he said

"Nothing unless you live without repents" Susie added "Even Deadpool killed more people defensively than mercilessly"

"But that was your job, which according to you wasn't any skin off your bones, was it?"Calvin interjected.

Answering this one could prove difficult, and yet difficult anyway.

"No, Calvin, I'm just…"said Susie, before giving Calvin the eye "As brave as I seem to you, I'm just not ready to die."

Calvin nodded, without even replying. He still looked into her, thinking maybe she was right. He tried smiling, in which Susie gave him one with more subtle lips.

He never expected the same subordinate who almost killed him to be so genuine at heart. Her eyes weren't as dark brown with the dim reflection of the sun.

Before they both closed into unconscious proximity, Ignatz came out of the blue.

"Jeremy and I found the coordinates to Borris Lane. Let's make tracks!" said the mouse as it scurried back off.

Susie knew this was a wakeup call into the world they were preordained to correct. Calvin knew this too, yet decided to make time. He gently held Susie's hands before speaking.

"Listen, as long as we find the Boss' one true flaw, I promise you…neither one of us is going to die, you know that, okay?" he said.

Now Susie saw an authoritative poise within him that she was only hinted of within the dungeon. The fact he was ready to take her in a tiny step more than just a partner made this all better.

She didn't care if it was love or trust, Susie was glad to have Calvin on her side.

"Yes" said Susie, facing another direction before continuing "In return, trust me: Defensively, it's never pointless to take a life"

This was debatable, but they had seldom time.

"It is with me" said Calvin auspiciously.

At that second, Susie could see he wasn't prepared to take that back. The very tone was part of him, and she couldn't help but find it attractive. The whole idea made her almost seem as if he wanted to quit the sect's regime of striking vigilante justice.

The more he saw her face, the more useless the struggle became. She could tell Calvin alone was curious as his face moved closer to hers.

Their eyes were almost an inch close, like their mouths. Temptation was almost hard unless they chose to stay that way. In fact, Susie herself was the one waiting for Calvin to make the first push.

And so was he.

But it was all useless once Susie realized they were both far from ready if one of them wasn't. She opened her eyes back again to see he mimicked her.

"We'd better get going" said Susie, standing up to follow Ignatz's path.

Calvin could've just sat there regretting it all, until a note card on the ground caught his eye. When he came up to it and picked it up, he saw it wasn't what it looked.

There was a photo of a blonde teenage girl wearing roller blind glasses, making it all seem conspicuous for the moment.

"That's interesting" he said, tucking the photo into his pocket. He had no idea who it was at the time.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_Here you have it! The last third originally intended to've been part of Chapter 9. I never figured this would take its course this far. And still, I'm as untrustworthy as ever to assume I'll still reach the last chapter. I'm training myself to work on a tight schedule so it might've been rushed on some ares. Still, there might be more soon to come._

_Peace!_


	12. Chapter 11: The Last Obstacle

**Chapter 11: The Last Obstacle**

The last H.Q. was perhaps the most ambiguous of the lot. If it wasn't the biggest nuthouse in the country, they'd be scared to meet the actual, especially when this nominee was found in the midst of nowhere but a wide range of forests.

It had the structure of a High School yet lacked the windowpanes, making it shine more as a white prison while decidedly lacking of most of the fenced exterior.

"Borris Lane is known for holding one building which detracts the eye from thinking it's more than it appears" said Ignatz, who like the group, was at least three blocks away and hiding within the gathering of trees.

"You mean an Asylum?" Susie asked, before placing Jeremy's binoculars back on.

"Exactly, its perimeter reveals to be a maze of some of the Boss' most trustworthy henchmen. So trustworthy that the Boss has convinced them to treat it like an adversary itself in order to keep its secret best guarded."

Susie gave Calvin the binoculars, secretly as an excuse to hold his hand. It was probably the closest thing to a date she'd ever experience.

"Are they advanced in any way?" Calvin asked while trying to see if he could read past the cobalt indemnified doors.

Jeremy eyed Calvin back, as if he'd just made a cold assumption.

"Why?" asked Jeremy.

"If I knew the Boss well, and maybe I do, I'd say the most heavily guarded place in the entire Sect is said to possess radar which detects any threats within a 50 mile radius" said Calvin, imagining the whole design. "This is the kind of tech the FBI doesn't know exists. The kind that may even corrupt it if it did. In fact, they can probably see us right now"

It was hopeful for Jeremy to assume Calvin might've been going paranoid on them. All of this especially since he hadn't paid much attention to the others.

Let alone the meditating Ignatz, whose closed eyes suggested he was up to something of his medium.

"It's a radar, Calvin. We've got something better: a psychic mouse that can easily disrupt its frequencies in a snap, isn't that right Ignatz?" asked Jeremy, directing his attention at the mouse afterwards.

Ignatz was still in his blank state, eyes closed into a road of darkness. Then a light full of mixing rainbow colors began to twist and twirl that road. It formed a white light, where the silhouette of a familiar squirrel formed.

Ignatz opened his eyes to appall.

"Ignatz?" asked Jeremy, waiting for the rodent to respond. Ignatz had no idea what to do with what he knew. He didn't want them to change their plans again, and yet they had to know.

" I…I don't believe this"

" I understand, It's all obsolete, no skin off-"

"That's not a radar" began Ignatz, before eyeing each individual in the group, in particular Susie. "They have their own psychic rodent!"

The smile never left Jeremy's mouth, even if he didn't understand Ignatz anymore than he understood his cosmically diverse mindset.

"What?" asked Jeremy.

"It must've been acquainted just yesterday!" said Ignatz.

"And you didn't tell us this was possible before…why?" added Calvin.

"I didn't know until now!" said Ignatz, trying to make sure Calvin could detect his honesty "Every building has an easy to read guard unit as long as the alterations aren't done before a week as planned"

"So what? Do they know we're coming?" asked Susie.

"Hold on!" interrupted Jeremy, erratically stimulated "You guys seem to have forgotten our little Ignatz was all but one mouse the first time we saw him"

Ignatz could read anyone's mind, and yet Jeremy's comment was confusing enough to shield him. He didn't need to wait once Jeremy asked anyway.

"Where are your friends now?"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The halls and corridors of the abandoned asylum weren' t so heavily secured, even if each had at least two robot guards marching back and forth.

Susie took them down one by one, without any of them even putting up a fight. In fact, the only one that spotted her aimed a bazooka, until a fire alarm froze them all and causeed them to evacuate.

"J to S! How're you holding up, Sue? Over" asked Jeremy through that same device.

Susie herself was wondering if this was less of an HQ and more of an island for misfit animatronics. She waltzed around the rooms before replying, making sure she was the only one keeping the premises from remaining purely vacant.

"They seem to be retreating, over" she said, feeling lonelier than ever.

"No matter, head on out the outdoor space"

Susie did what he said by opening the door, leading her to the exercise yard fit for anyone who wanted some fresh air and sunlight.

It was amazing, maybe two thirds of the great asylum was made up by the 960 square feet of endless space. It made Susie almost wonder who would want to open up an asylum like this just to let it go out of business.

"Are you sure this is it? I don't want to assume it's too easy already" she said, walking slowly across the concrete. It was so empty; she could hear the wind blowing.

"The final head house, Borris Lane, no strings attached…" replied Jeremy.

Susie didn't believe him. It was creepier outside than the moment she snuck in through the air vent. The fact that the doors on the other side were open suggested this was also a test.

"Those drones back there didn't even put up a fight, the ones that tried anyway!" she said, turning her head back at the door from which she exited. She didn't want to go back yet.

"We've gone too far to argue now; you're a few steps closer to the weakness as we speak, if you can just get past those doors-"

Susie could hear Jeremy, even when her attention swayed it away. About fifteen yards away and out of nowhere emerged hundreds of chipmunks. She couldn't believe it, but they were wearing samurai garments.

This was more of a challenge to believe than to actually overcome.

"Jeremy, can Ignatz hear me?" she asked, immediately placing the rodent on the line.

"Yes, are you okay?"

"I think backup time starts now!"

As the chipmunks started talking in gibberish, Susie realized they even spoke like true swordsmen. From her pose, anyone else might've mistaken the critters for portable grass.

"I hope no one's expecting any Alvin and the Chipmunks manga anytime soon!" she said sarcastically.

There were too many to count, Susie was sure of it. She saw how they simply stood there, lined up in deadly precision, row by row. Then amongst the many, a small baby-like chipmunk walked away from the masses.

If it worked for Garfield, Susie was too stricken to remember her first mishap.

"Aww, look at you, little guy" said Susie, cupping her hands.

She walked a pace close and crouched down to look at the small pup. It was no bigger than a tangerine and Susie just wanted to hold it in her hands.

"Hey there, little fella. What's your name?" she asked, thinking she could keep it.

Her hands could easily grab the curious chipmunk, up until they froze when her earphone came back online. It was Ignatz.

"Susie! Try not to get near them! We're on our way, just try keeping a distance!" said Ignatz restlessly.

Susie disregarded it and tried to place one hand near its proximity.

"Mellow out, Ignatz, this one can't even walk-" said Susie, before the little chipmunk dazzled her expectations.

Susie didn't see the sword, but she saw how quickly the baby chipmunk moved after it sliced her earphone and revealed the toothpick shaped tetsuiga.

"- right"

Susie took out her gun and walked backwards slowly, before hearing the other mice behind her arrive. Every one of them, back from the cemetery she remembered as the church, was there.

It was as if they'd been recruited by an army, and Ignatz was the chief.

"We're not that many, but our combined powers will suffice one way or the other" he said.

Susie almost smiled, admiring his confidence. She looked back at the little chipmunk, poised to strike with the others, ready for the biggest action of all the fights.

"That's kind of an arid dryness against a plethora of samurai chipmunks" she replied.

"We need only to get them as far away from your path as possible so you can make it to the last elite leader"

"These chipmunks mean business!"

Ignatz looked back at its army. There was only one mouse for every ten chipmunks. He knew it took more than quantity to impress.

"Rourke!" he called out. What came next was worthy of an applause from Susie, it was first rate fourth wall entertainment.

One of the mice steps forward and walks to Ignatz's side. Ignatz pointed to the chipmunks, the mouse nods and walks towards their direction. He stops at four inches away from them and kneels. Then, one chipmunk comes out and stands next to the mouse.

They bow.

Then he looks him in the eye, the mouse looks down. The chipmunk takes his sword out and lays it on the mouse's shoulder. It says something in Japanese before striking the sword up to decapitate him. To their surprise, the chipmunk puts the sword back inside his pocket, and a few seconds later, its head explodes.

"Does that look like we don't?" yelled Ignatz in everyone's thoughts.

Accepting the pledge of treachery, the chipmunks yell and charge right at the mice.

"Tactical alpha formation 128, commence!" Instructed Ignatz after most of the mice behind him began to glow more as they joined up by the numbers, forming a path between the chipmunks for Susie to squeeze through.

"Now's your chance, Susie, GO!" said Ignatz.

Susie walked into the somewhat tight space, making her way into the door and closing it once she made it inside. The swords almost poke her when they stab through the wood. It was comparable to what Moses would've done if he tried walking past a sea of barbed wires as his stead.

Susie did anything that didn't involve looking back on the tip of the entrance. She walked in, around the location, until finding an unorthodox hall and opens the door.

It lead to yet another hall; only this one was decorated with something unorthodox: picture frames of Rachel Ray.

Susie rolled her eyes, wondering what this had to do in any way with video games.

The door was but a few yards away. She opened it and saw a dark room, probably as dark if not less than the Boss'.

"I should've brought a map" she said, expecting any movement whatsoever after she took a step forward, marking her entrance.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure emerged from the Office desk; bellow the label that read "Boss". Susie noticed it and pointed to get its attention.

"You!" she began "Are you really the high Boss?"

The shadow began to take the form of a taller monk which rose and slowly walked towards the other side of the desk.

"Me you say?" it spoke in a screechy tone "Me? The Boss? The Leader? The Don? The Master? The Head Honcho? The Big Cheese? The Great Dictator? The Grand Poobah? The One who calls the shots? The only character in this entire board capable of arranging its Bishops and its Pawns to make for a delicious checkmate? It's fresh, it's hip, it's a modern compliment beyond conservative knowledge and I'm flattered!"

The hooded figure emerges itself from the shadows and its dark brown robes to be a squirrel dressed up as Toad from one of the Mario games.

"But as you can see, our "Boss" is in another castle" it finished drolly, removing the whole attire afterwards.

It didn't look very psychic as far as henchmen went, but Susie believed it was. It wasn't even looking at her when she took out both her sigs and fired at the squirrel.

They stopped in midair.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to count your bullets before they hit?"

"You ARE telekinetic"

"Name's Bob, and most use the word "Psychic", its more practical" said Bob the Squirrel before bending the bullets with his mind and forming them into marble-like structures which he then held.

"I just wish that wasn't the only skill they'd see me good at"

Bob made the crane pose as he balanced both bullets.

"I see you know Martial Arts, is that how you want to play?"

"I'LL FIGHT A GIRL! Not very well, BUT I WILL!" replied Bob, insecurely for a swift second "Besides, those chipmunks didn't learn from a cereal box!"

Susie responded with the fighting stance as she extends her arm and directed Bob to make the first move. Bob permits and does a back flip towards her direction.

_We're far down the rabbit hole __**now.**_

He slices the air that made up an inch away from Susie's former location with his tail before dodging the fist that Susie had given him to the right. She then chopped the spot with her right where half of Bob's body was before he ducked and round house kicked a fraction of her chest before she wedged her left hand to prevent him. Bob dodged an uppercut in order to land his hand on her shoulder only for her to scrub him off with a mid-air cartwheel.

Bob lands dryly with his hand on the ground.

"Quit stalling like a first grader!" said Susie before running at Bob's direction. "It doesn't take a lucky guess to know you're a black belt in more than just the basics!"

Bob jumps to an unimaginable height in order to flip in mid air and aim his elbows onto Susie's neck. Susie rolls to the left and an inch away from his blow.

"BASICS? I once had friends named Judo and Aikido!"

Susie blocks Bob's chops before she gets distracted and looks to her right. At that moment, Bob, kicked Susie off her balance and made her body drop.

She would continue fighting if she wanted to, instead of lying on her back. This made Bob wonder why she didn't without distracting him. Susie was tired either way from enough exercise to cost her the next Wii fit installment.

"I never thought I'd be a one hit wonder" said Bob as he came over her and stood triumphantly over her abdomen. "And you said I was stalling? Just for that, you lose everything! Including your "winning chance" privileges!"

Bob brought a nearly compelling but inexorable scenario and took out a katana as he walked close enough to aim over Susie neck.

"Any last minute requests before I give your opposable thumbs to the boss?" Asked Bob as he returned the confusion Susie was treating him to.

"Don't you mean hands?" asked Susie.

"I do, but without opposable thumbs, you don't have much of a hand, TRUST ME!" said Bob as he emphasized with the same paws he held the glistening blade with.

Susie's eyes directed themselves quickly to the left before she smiled and replied.

"Sure, how's a staring contest sound for you?"

"I mean this rhetorically, but if I don't, does it make a difference if you win?

"I'm not the one with the sword, pour paws!"

"Exactly! So if you blink, you die!"

"Whatever you say, Dr. Who"

" Starting…NOW"

Their eyes were at a null point in closing. It was easy for Bob as a rodent who never felt pain even in the face of blinding light, which served as proof of the advantage for giving the rest of his four senses slightly enhanced attention.

Susie, in the vein of ignorantly robotic henchmen, threw away effort for what looked like stubborn retort. Only Bob felt this once she lost, as it looked more like a wink the first waking instance before the other eye gave out.

Bob smirked.

"Goodbye, Sue!" said Bob, blinking one and lifting the katana even higher.

"Indeed" said Susie who wasn't even looking at him yet wasn't with eyes wide shut at the moment. "Goodbye"

There was a speed the same as a grasshopper when Bob only reached a millimeter away from piercing Susie's flesh. Only Susie saw the bazooka that Ignatz held before it was fired directly at Bob.

The squirrel launched out of the open window as far as a mile. Few heard the explosion when her attention could only juggle standing right back up.

"And…perfect timing" said Ignatz as he laid the weapon which was ten times his size down.

"Way to go, Ignatz! Even though I'm not sure how he ignored you" said Susie.

"Sure he was a psychic, but he sure as crumbs didn't know me" said Ignatz as he crawled his way up to the office desk. "Of course, throwing bricks isn't as rigid practical as firing bullets"

Susie walked up to the office desk. Not since before did she see the button attached to the blank nametag.

"Eitherway, bullets, knives or even bricks, I'll always be an inch away from the reaper" said Susie as she read the words "Your time has come" on the same button.

"_That's all he tells me. He said it once differently, _"My time will come, they'll see",_ maybe he's plotting revenge or something, I don't know"_

"Rotten luck, eh?" said Susie, quietly enthusiastic.

She pressed the button and watched the furniture unfold as though it were another contraption disguised as it was. Most of the paraphernalia like pencils and a coffee mug flipped over as the real disclosure came in the form of an Ifruit desktop monitor, rising out of the hole where the former objects descended to.

"Interesting" said Susie as she watched the screen flash aware. It was pitch black, with a white blinking hyphen next to the upper left corner.

Only a mild matter of waiting before words came out and appeared as if they were being typed.

_**Control has adapted a new owner, state your name.**_

There wasn't a keyboard to reply with, leaving Susie in the dust as to how she would reply. She looked back at Ignatz, who shrugged and left her to go out on a limb with this.

"Um, SUE! What is this?" she talked back.

The words disappeared to both their relief. This was odd, very odd, no matter how much any of it tried to make sense on its own.

_**This is the Bilk Division's master control database. After having travelled a long journey, barely making it out alive with your principles and defeating enough Bosses to make it here, you are eligible to take the former Boss' place without anymore issues or red tape to adhere to.**_

"Oh, well thanks" said Susie, who was wondering why neither Jeremy nor Calvin ever informed her of this before. "But I'm only here for the Boss' one true weakness"

_**What?**_

It wasn't every day that computers spoke in a single word informal ennui in order to have a conversation with people. Even computers equipped with Speak aloud had a wider range of vocabulary.

"I'm here for the Boss's one true weakness." Replied Susie as she watched the screen. The hyphen returned as it took a bigger while to greet back.

_**Umm… does not compute,**_ _**why you are looking for a harder way to resolve your issue instead of simply sitting on the throne is hard to calculate.**_

Susie was beginning to doubt if the computer lacked a personality like the average Macintosh. If only there came instructions provided before her.

"I don't follow" said Susie.

_**What's so complicated about it? All you have to do is take your place as the Higher Boss in order to overthrow the current heir in order to sustain complete and utter authority and viola. If you go with the weakness, that's just egocentric vengeance, it's not worth it if you have an ethically richer alternative here.**_

"I know, but has the boss taken advantage of this power in any way?"

_**Nothing more than current structures, venomous bracelets, the Mexican organ trade business as a way to dispose of former members and I guess the power to stretch loopholes so as not to be discovered by the higher forces. It's as though the beginning of the 20**__**th**__** century has such disciplines slaughtering looked so malign. Even with the weakness at hand, the odds don't exist very much unless you just fulfill this responsibility. You have nothing to lose other than hesitance, and who needs that anyway? **_

"What's wrong with the weakness?"

_**I was instructed not to advise you, unless you were to ask me. See, I cannot warn more than a few words of caution. Visions of fury, retribution or simple blackmail lead to nothing more than useless paths of darkness created by your own misshapen intentions.**_

"Well forgive me, Ifruit, but I'm just not so sure that real life and video games were made for each other, no matter how good the graphics look"

_**No, forgive me, for I have no hardships awaiting me and will soon inhabit the apathy of a true computer system.**_

The computer then revealed a box with two small buttons: one to the left was colored blue while the one to the right was colored red.

_**If you click the blue button, you'll be the queen of a fantasy world humanity denies by choice. There you can do all the rights and wrongs without impeachment. If you click the red button, a key will appear before you, and the Boss' one true weakness with be at your disposal.**_

_**Goodbye.**_

Those words were all that remained before Susie made her choice and the computer screen shut down. The computer screen flipped back down into the desk and was replaced with a small chest and a key.

"Sue, what happened there?" asked Ignatz.

"I don't know" replied Susie as she held the key to acknowledge it's excel "Now I didn't"

Susie inserted the key into the chest's one gap and twisted it. The lock was undone and the receptacle slowly opened with a mild creak. Both Ignatz and Susie's eyes slowly shifted away from air as the darkness faded into light, and the object's presence.

This had to be the greatest revelation of all, Susie knew it.

"We'd better show this to Calvin and Jeremy" said Susie as she took out a cake that held the words "THE CAKE IS A" and a nametag that read "taste the frosting".

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_Honestly! Why couldn't I come up with a better chapter title than that crap! I guess I was in a bigass rush, that's all. Fortunately, I at least managed to go this far (I mean 12 chapters, WOW!). Now that I have, I'd like to cite both Tarantino and Koushun Takami for inspiring me even more than I needed. And alas, even as I've gone this far, there's still potential doubt I'll finish it._

_Only hope can decided whether that'll happen or not. See you soon if possible!_


	13. Chapter 12: Frank and Harmonica Reborn

**Chapter 12: Frank and Harmonica Reborn**

Old Charlie Brown sat on a soft cushion of a chair, staring into the sunset's remains. He saw many things beyond the horizon. Amongst them was hope, tomorrow, mending promises and the night's debut.

A few seconds later, he saw a hooded figure approaching his direction.

Charlie couldn't help but smile.

"Surprised to see me?" asked the lone member once it was a few yards away from his porch. Charlie glanced back at it, realizing it was also unarmed.

"I knew you'd come" replied Charlie, realizing the truth.

It was only a matter of time at least one member would find him: The only witness to Denise's death. Nevertheless did Charlie care what he was planning, if he had anything in mind.

The member looked down, as if it'd just realized its hands were in its pocket the whole time or to make sure that they were still there.

"Morton once told me video games could never replicate life. Now I understand why. Wouldn't have bothered him, knowing you were around somewhere alive" said the member.

"So you found out the reason rodents are a gem amongst children"

"We're rodents ourselves"

Charlie leaned forward. He saw its point, and yet hoped there was more to it. There always was amongst its kind.

"An ancient race" replied Charlie, pausing for a minimal amount of seconds before continuing. "No matter how much our parents care for us, adults will always treat us like pets"

Maybe this inference would drive the member out of its hiding place. All Charlie wanted to do was pass the time. He wasn't like anyone else anymore, who were afraid of the outdoor nighttime.

Afraid of the scavengers similar to the one he was talking to, with their implicit agendas and useless sacraments.

"The future doesn't matter to us now. Not the games, not the knowledge, not even the enlightened feelings that make you feel grateful you're living in the moment instead of passing off last year like yesterday" continued the member earnestly. "I came here to see you, because now…I know you'll tell me what I'm looking for" said the member.

Charlie couldn't help himself from standing up. He realized there was more time in his belt, something the member could covet if he knew. If he wasn't mislead to think the opposite now that he saw him get up.

"Revenge?" Charlie asked.

"Close" he replied.

"Justice"

Charlie shook his head. He took hold of an empty Arizona can that was hidden behind his seat the whole time before walking down the porch's small staircase. Then he walked past the member and laid the can on the ground next to the sidewalk's edge.

"Trust me, I know what it's like to deal with revenge hungry folk" he said as he remained in his spot, looking away from the scene "They used to call me Chuck, back when I was your age, so fresh without deserving control of my pride, before I was aliased what conveniently came closest"

The member walked almost beside him.

"Like what?" it asked.

Charlie returned the member's notion by eying him ruthlessly. The member didn't know if he was supposed to feel any repentance from that look. By now, Charlie's tone wasn't as welcoming, albeit still calm.

"Charles Bronson" said Charlie before kicking the can as if it was some sort of sports tool, like a _football_.

"You don't need me to find the former members. The current Boss is already pinpointing their location"

The member recoiled a bit. It knew word was a small rumor for those who've heard of the Bilk Division. There was even a respectable possibility some knew there was a boss.

_Current._

If it mattered to him, the member would've asked why Charlie addressed it as such.

"Then I'll be going now." said the member, awaiting Charlie to sit back on his chair "I'll come back when it's all over."

The member began walking away, into the foggy night. Charlie was just relieved he did his share, no matter how pointless it was.

If only his congenital growth-hormone condition didn't exist, then these types would stop trying to recruit him.

"That's what Aerith said in Final Fantasy VII" said Charlie, though not enough to stop the member.

"You expect me not to see that" said the member, continuing its walk.

Charlie never took a liking to these guys; they didn't treat him with enough respect until now. For that, they deserved something that would help them as much as alter them for good.

"Just so you know" screamed Charlie.

"Vengeance doesn't always represent death!"  
><em><br>_The member stopped on its tracks yet again, giving Charlie yet another slight grin.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_I DID IT! I made it to the twelfth chapter. And in case you're wondering, I kind of took it to the extreme in allusions here. This chapter and its title are based on a scene from one of my all time most beloved movie "Once Upon a Time in the West". I'd highlt reccomend the movie more than any other. Having seen both of them, it's almost literally the Citizen Kane of Westerns._

_As for the story, I'll just leave it there for a while. Who knows when or if I'll submit another chapter._


	14. Chapter 13: Abandoning Yourself

**Chapter 13: Abandoning Yourself**

The Boss' office was nearly empty, as if it was ready to move out. The walls were of a dark brown, similar to the vague desk it sat behind. It enjoyed this lack of company, giving it time to reflect rather than concentrate on important future decisions.

No matter how predictable they were at that point.

It was around the time the Boss laid its behemoth skull back that a member waltzed into the room. Even for an emergency, the member clearly gave nothing for its sake.

"High Boss!" said the member, looking for it in the dark. Its eyes glowed, becoming the only light source in the room.

"What is it?" It asked, with the same bottomless pitch, making the member feel like it was perfectly in the last layer of oblivion.

"The adversaries have found their way into your weakness. What do we do now?"

The Boss would usually kill the member, had it given it useless information, and granted that information which The Boss was previously familiar counted in that aspect.  
>Thanks to the element of jogging its memory, The Boss would reward the member by means of more than sparing.<p>

"Very well, follow me" said the Boss as it stood out of the desk, walked out of the room and past the member.

"It's not every day you see one chase the hare for another to catch it"

The member did as it was told and followed its steps.

"I'm accompanying the use of oneshot taser guns for your disposal" said the member.

The boss turned its head towards the member's direction, never ceasing to walk. The member followed without remorse.

"Is that so?" said the boss, nearly sarcastic past its tone.

"It was under your bid, you want I cancel the order, Boss?"

"Negative. The Bilk Division has something more versatile than tasers, though. Something no one else had dibs on all along"

The Boss and the member leave the headquarters through a double sided door, escorted by two other members. Only the first member was aware of the colt-like weapon it held.

Ignatz and Susie made it back to the apartment, where Jeremy and Calvin generously awaited their arrival. Jeremy never doubted it was all too easy for her, being the expertise of careful preparation.

Only Calvin had the torch of uncertainty when she saw her carrying the slab of food after she explained the whole scheme.

"You didn't!" said Calvin excitedly.

"The proof is in the pastry" Susie replied.

"Come again?" asked Jeremy, in which Susie points at the cake.

"Get a load and behold!"

Calvin witnessed the entire baked delight, equipped with black velvet frosting and the very words that delivered the anachronistic mystery: "The Cake is a". He was impressed by how riddle patented the Boss' weakness remained even after conquest.

"Well, good job, Sue, though not my taste of nuance" said Calvin, smiling past the sight.

"Speaking of taste, what do you suspect of the flavor?" said Jeremy, almost placing his finger on the frosting.

"Wait! Jeremy" said Calvin, stopping his hand. "Nobody can tell for sure if it's really a cake"

"Dude, it says right here!" replied Jeremy pointing at the red frosting.

"He's right, Calvin, there's no other way of finding out what's supposed to be meant by "the cake is a" other than by tasting the evidence" Susie backed him up.

"I know, but what if it's poisoned? We've already taken enough risks as it is, I suggest-" said Calvin before being interrupted by a spitting sound.

It came from Jeremy, who couldn't do anything to help himself unless it was to the cake.

"BLEAH! Speak for yourself, at least poison has flavor!" said a closed eye Jeremy, sticking out his tongue to get rid of the extract

"Who in the right mind makes a cake out of soap?!"

Susie looked back at the cake. Part of the white frosting surrounding the words was missing, making out what almost looked like half an "L". It was all starting to come together for her, if not for the rest of the gang.

What was the opposite of truth?

"THAT'S IT! The cake isn't real! It's phony, fake, a decoy!" said Calvin, out of nowhere.

"Yeah…" said Susie, agreeing with him. And now that the cat was out of the bag, it was time to investigate. Susie rubbed the soap off the empty space in order to spell "lie" along with the missing letters.

They turned out to be a button.

Susie quickly pressed it and witnessed as the cake opened up like a suitcase. Almost all of them ooo-ed in astound.

"Good idea, right?" asked Jeremy, waiting for a response from no one.

"What's inside?"

They shrugged as Calvin went first and peeked inside of the hollow, round space. There was an envelope, with the outer pelt resembling tin.

"Is that Kevlar?" asked Jeremy, poking at the material as well.

"What's that?" Ignatz asked.

"It's a metal used for bulletproof vests, sure feels like it" he replied, rubbing his fingers to get a better grip at the viscosity.

"Who knows or cares? I say we open it now!" interrupted Susie, swiping the envelope away.

"Hold on!" said Calvin "Sue, even if we should open it, we can't just expect our problems to be over right away."

Sue returned a confused scowl at Calvin; as if he'd just lost faith in the situation they were prepared beforehand. One thing was safety, the other was paranoid suspicion.

"I don't know what you're on about, isn't that is what we all fought for? Then again, I did most of the fighting, and won! Why judge yourself all of a sudden?"

"I never said I was one to jud…Listen, don't you find it even the least weird that the boss' "flaw" would come to us this easily…straightforward? To me, it's almost as if the Boss WANTED us to shut down the sect for it!" Calvin replied.

Susie continued to eye him with the same confusion. Maybe she was becoming suspicious herself, not that she was one to do so.

"What's your point?" she asked, in which Calvin fondly, and amiably, cleared it out.

"Other than that squirrel, Sue, are you sure there wasn't a single obstacles left?"

That's where it all made an unexpected turning of events when it came to the clear cut facts in Susie's world. She would've said there weren't any actual obstacles now that she'd even gone past a rodents equipped with martial arts. But now, it turned out the specific truth was the real obstacle she had to overcome.

She already lied to him by saying she wasn't anyone she knew, despite Calvin's memory being the one that deserved the most guilt. Susie didn't want to leave out any details that might've been essential to him this time.

Maybe if she gave it a chance, there wouldn't be a reason to fear the truth once she surrendered her real identity.

"No, of course not…" said Susie, hesitating for only a second.

"Well… except this weird, confusing Ifruit that gave me the choice between ultimate control and the Boss' weakness, but that's just surreal"

Calvin turned to her in shock.

"WHAT?" he asked, abruptly yet never once loudly.

"Chillax, Calvin, can we open our presents now?" said Susie as she held the Kevlar embedded envelope.

"Yeah, Dude! I don't want to have tasted soap for nothing!" said Jeremy, backing her up.

Calvin didn't stop looking at Susie weirdly. Once he did, a sigh left him, along with a motion for them to carry on, even if he was a fraction as thrilled.

" Let her rip, Sue!" said Ignatz.

Susie opened the Kevlar envelope with a pocket knife she took out from her knapsack. It wasn't hard to open, even if Susie wanted to be sure.

"Well I'll be the head of Sony!" said Susie, being the first to know what it is.

She took out what appeared to be a Birthday card. The cover read "This may be a joystick…" with an Xbox 360 controller drawn on it. Susie decides not to hesitate and opens it.

At first it was hard to make out, except for the cartoony image of a girl hugging a startled boy who happened to be holding the same controller.

Under that picture was some sort of calligraphy which held a meandering resemblance to both Katakana and Russian.

Calvin recognized it easily: it was Elvish. Before he had the time to let anyone know, Susie interrupts the flow.

"Oh hey, THIS looks important!" she said as she swiped the gift card wedged behind the whole one nobody else seemed to notice.

Calvin didn't want Susie to get excited yet. She seemed to have forgotten why the enemy was really a worthy target and not just someone misunderstood. That was the real difference between payback and blind reprisal.

And yet, she did anyway.

"Gentlemen, we may have done it this time! We came, we saw, we defeated! We did the impossible and overthrew the Division in what felt like one fell swoop! All we need now is to contact that son of a Boss and intimidate it to declare game over, right Calvin?" said Susie, turning her attention towards the unimpressed Calvin, hoping he'd back her up.

His only motion was blinking, which was really enough to storm on Susie's parade.

"Yoohoo! Calvin to Earth, Earth to Calvin! We did it! We won; we're finally in the victor's shoes! Why the long face?" asked Susie, in whom Calvin turns, his entire body away from her.

She sensed a lack of trust here, as if she knew what he was thinking. As pressured as she was to keep her own skeletons locked up, that wasn't stopping her from making sure Calvin wasn't hiding his sudden distrust towards her.

"Oh cut us some slack, Calvin! They're the evil ones, not us! You know we were not made to stoop to their level!" she replied.

For the strangest reason, it felt like the library project all over again. Except for the first impossible time, the shoe seemed to be on the other foot.

"Why does it matter if we're still on the brink of blackmail?" he replied, turning to face her in rebuttal. His eyes gave no way to any meandering for Susie.

"What?" said Susie, now fearing him once he approached her. Calvin swiped the card away from Susie's hands, out of the blue and somewhat aggressively.

"Whoa! Take it easy, I'd like that back now" said Susie, holding her hand out. She was more desperate for a response than actually gaining the card back.

But Calvin was prepared to knock some unknown sense into her.

"First, tell me more about this Ifruit control" he said, crossing his arms.

It was ridiculous how cold Susie suddenly felt, it's not like she was in an interrogation room, let alone Calvin invisible.

"What about it? All I can remember is it offered me some sort of ultimate power in return for the weakness" replied Susie, trying to regain the calm spirit she had and Calvin needed.

It didn't work as Calvin's mouth didn't even move except to speak.

"What kind of "ultimate power"?" he asked warily.

Forget preschool, Susie felt as if she wasn't even trusted anymore. All this time she thought her past would've been let go, only to have Calvin try to implicitly milk it out of her.

She even preferred that Jeremy would've been the one to ask her instead of him. Calvin nodded sarcastically as she replied.

"How should I know? Maybe a new program, spyware, my own millionaire website, maybe?" she replied, looking Calvin straight in the eye.

Susie didn't know how the tiny clue she gave was enough to solve the biggest mystery.

"It offered you the throne, didn't it?" he asked, no hint of happy emotion could be spotted behind his words. Susie wasn't sure she could carry her act any longer as she replied.

"It MIGHT'VE if it would've made more sense-"

"DID IT OR DID IT NOT OFFER YOU THE THRONE?" exploded Calvin, sticking his upper body forward, as if all he needed was to hold her by her collar to emphasize death.

DID YOU ORDER CODE RED!?

Susie recoiled before answering.

"FINE! YES! Geez, in exchange for the weakness, do you have to yell?" she replied nervously.

Never had Susie felt so pressured until now. Calvin wasn't even trying to take this as the kid he still was. His horrified face stood there for a moment, glaring past Susie's, and finally turning away.

"I don't believe this…I CAN'T…I don't believe this…" he said to himself, furiously walking in small circles.

Susie somewhat felt she had breached a side of Calvin she didn't know took over him in a while. This was even before he joined the dismal club.

"Come on, Calvin, why would I want to rule the same division that stabbed us all in the back?" she asked, sympathetically as she remained. She should've known it was like requesting the perfect uproar.

"Oh for…Do you realize you could've just gone half the Monty and ENDED IT ALL?!" He asked angrily, motioning his hands and view outside "No need for the Boss, no need for the Sect, no need for this stupid weakness right now if you'd just accepted power and snapped the goddamn elder wand in half?!"

Given the metaphor, this was definitely pre-k all over again, and Susie was willing to play the logic game if Calvin wasn't prepared to see things her way.

"TAKE A FUCKING CHILL PILL!" she yelled, joining in his rhythm. "Square one, how was I supposed to find another route if it would've modified, maybe ruined, our plans?"

"Don't you get it, Sue? With that kind of power, we could've brought everything BACK TO NORMAL, IT'S NOT THAT COMPLICATED!"

"HOW WOULD YOU KNOW WHAT IS?! IT WAS A FUCKING IFRUIT FOR FUCK SAKES! Nothing's ever that easily straightforward, remember?!"

"WE NEVER HAD ANYTHING ELSE LEFT TO LOSE! GET THAT STRAIGHT THROUGH YOUR SKULL!"

"You think I haven't? Anything like the innocent children they've killed, the innocent children I'VE killed, YOUR ARM!?"

"Wonderful idea! Let's end this the same way it began, WITH A VENGEANCE!"

"Why credit me for an idea that WASN'T EVEN MINE?!"

Susie was almost sure she'd take out her blade if Calvin wouldn't shut up. She was even beginning to see the arrogant side of him that was more for the division than against it.

"…When I said I wanted to quit, I was all set to take any option that'd come my way…even death..."

"All right, stop it! You two need to understand what this situation means for ALL of us, not just both" said Jeremy, stepping in between their quarrel.

His intervention, rather than serve its purpose, did the opposite as Susie felt he reminded her of something.

"No Jeremy, I see why this is the way it is" said Susie as she pushed Jeremy aside lightly and looked Calvin straight in the eye.

"Calvin, you're jealous aren't you?"

Calvin only gave her the puzzled eye.

"Jealous of what?" he asked irately.

"According to Jeremy, you were once an envious guy, always wanting to accomplish it all without any help, so from what I can tell, my victory's making you wish it was you, isn't it?"  
>Calvin gave the glance back at Jeremy, who gave him a shrugging gesture. He thought Susie might've been threatening him, or even having him seen as a threat.<p>

"Oh, he told you, didn't he?" he said, switching from Susie's glare to Jeremy's back to back. Now he definitely felt betrayed.

"If I was REALLY jealous, I'd be arguing about why I should've been the one to hack the ultimate mainframe instead of Sue! But teamwork was the prime aspect of our success, so am I?" asked Calvin.

"No, but if you WEREN'T jealous, you would've told us ALL about this master control computer instead of keeping it to yourself, Mr. Hacker!" replied Susie, feeling like a true lawyer.

"I guess it wouldn't help if I told you there was even a little button next to it that said "Your time has come", eh?"

Calvin's eyes widened after hearing Susie's last words. She did it, she finally brought Calvin down to the level he once was. The worst part was she didn't give him a choice.

"I knew it!" said Susie, feeling the victory engulf her with disdain. "Your time came and went, Cal-"

Calvin faced Jeremy before dismissing himself to the kitchen.

"I thought we agreed" he said.

Susie, Jeremy and Ignatz watched in remorse as Calvin seemed to go unseen inside the kitchen just to stomp out towards the door. Jeremy was the only one who tried following him.

"Hold on, dude, where you going?" he asked, holding his palm out.

"I already did time in my own Juvy long ago!" said Calvin, twisting the knob.

"Wait! Calvin, you're taking the card?" asked Ignatz as Calvin continued to escape his rage.

"And a gun, in case anyone's looking for me!" he replied and finally exited the apartment.

Owing most of this to her prying, Susie tried following Calvin once he went down the stairs of the apartment.

"Just so you know, this wasn't my idea until you supported it! We all have a say in this now!" she said, almost commandingly.

Calvin turned around anxiously.

"As if we had a choice!" he yelled.

"No, neither of us, including and especially you and me, had any idea how deep the waters we were drowning in were! But did that stop me from taking risks, flipping death the bird to eventually reach where we are now? DID IT?"

"I never WANTED anymore of this!" said Calvin as he tried to continue his walk "I thought payback was the only option, not the right one! I just wanted to go far enough to erase this filthy memory so it wouldn't find us anymore!"

"You can't run from it, Calvin. The best way to solve a problem is always to look at it in the eyes before getting it over with!"

"I wouldn't know what that's like, being nothing but a member who appreciated life, I never saw THAT as the only option!"

At that instant, Susie saw Calvin as he did before he knew who he was. Gone was the kid he hoped to divulge her true identity as she started to see him morph back into the suicidal A75 back at that dungeon.

_"This death cult you all pass off for a "division" has been nothing more than an itch on my back for a long time now. You think me, or better yet, ANYONE with an ounce of sanity can live with that?"  
><em>  
>It occurred to Susie after Calvin turned back around. He was leaving her little by little, without knowing who she really was.<p>

And yet, she wanted him less to see who she wasn't than her real name.

"I'm confused, Calvin!" she yelled, deciding to bring a small hint of both his and her past into the table, hoping it would work

"Since when are you so…so…**cynical**?"

Calvin stopped walking. He even turned around, wearing a seriously frozen face, to show Susie had his attention, if she was prepared to use it wisely.

Then again, it was still too much for her.

"I mean, it's like…you donned another side of yourself!" said Susie, incapable of finding the right words.

"But you weren't always like this! I know you Calvin, this isn't you-"

Calvin didn't have to speak in order to stop Susie's jumble flow. He slowly walked, measuring each step, until he was at least half a meter away from her.

His glare now suggested that in spite of having mastered most martial arts, Susie had perfectly failed to impress him this time around.

"Then who…the HELL…am I?" asked Calvin, enunciating every word.

"HUH? I'VE HAD IT UP TO FUCKING EVEREST WITH YOUR SUSPICIOUS PERFORMANCE! You claim I keep too many secrets when you yourself seem to know more about me than I ever did!"

Susie didn't want to talk anymore. She tried to see if subtly reminding him would make him sympathize with her better instead of raising bigger questions she was never ready to answer.

"If you won't tell me who you really are, explain how in spite of what you told me about solving a problem head on, why was I, in that filthy dungeon, the only exception?" he asked, throwing away his last chance at a real winning chance.

Susie only looked at him, waiting for him to see she had nothing else to contribute. This being nothing except a vision of an opportunity slipping past her grasp. An opportunity she didn't want either way, no matter how perfect the moment was to cease it.

"After all, you DO know me, don't you Sue?" he asked, sincerely waiting for an answer.

Susie bleakly sighed as she waited for Calvin to finish her off.

"Didn't think so" he said "Only one of us chose to move on with their lives, Sue, and right now…"

Calvin turned around after leaving that statement hanging. It was here that Susie finally realized that remembering history was sometimes the reason it repeated itself to begin with.

It was best for the both once Calvin found the fragment he almost lost.

"It's hard to tell who that is"

Calvin walked off into the night, leaving Susie to watch. Seeing him disappear in size from distance made her see how much she'd failed in this mission. It was like watching the Ifruit shut down after she made her final decision.

The remains of the image began to shrink in significance before it finally faded to black. The only difference was clear once she knew Calvin, a once old friend, was completely gone.

She didn't know what to do this time around.

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_Let's just say **someone** apparently wanted me to finish this, so here it is._


	15. Chapter 14: He Lives in Calvin

**Chapter 14: He Lives in Calvin**

Susie remained standing even after Calvin was no longer visible. She stood there absorbing the plane that became a true failure when she refused to accept Calvin's contribution. Only the way she had just let Calvin go could save her from seeing herself as the betrayed subordinated who desired as much revenge as any morally corrupt criminal.

"Sue!" yelled Jeremy, running up to her. She really thought this all had a point; this became her own perfect definition of naivety.

"You can call me Susie now, Jeremy" she replied. "He can't hear us anymore"

Jeremy looked down at her, wondering if she was ashamed of everything that occurred between the last few hours and up until now. He knew what it was like to have everything perfect, just to lose it a second later.

Jeremy was not going to let it happen to Susie as well.

"Sigh, Susie…I wish there was another way to escape this mess as much as you, but I don't think running away from it is the perfect solution either" said Jeremy.

"I deserve everything that's coming to us more than you"

Susie took what Jeremy said and tried to emphasize as much as she could with any part of the situation that she needed. It didn't make sense either way, Jeremy had to know that.

"This was never a contest, Jeremy, even if we had to race against time to make it this far"

"Of course it was, Dude!" said Jeremy "You keep thinking Calvin wanted to destroy the sect without considering he was any different than the Boss itself! But he said it! He never  
>wanted this for anyone! He knew how effects could outbid the causes when you forget your history, man! He knew what he was doing, what about you?"<p>

She looked back at him; Jeremy didn't seem to be playing on this one. She forgot how he knew Calvin more than she used to. Everything was worth starting over, even after the biggest screw-up thus far.

"I don't know…but why?" she asked, sounding nearly desperate. "What's the use of sacrificing one's life if it's just another wasted soul flowing amongst the masses in this philosopher's stone of failed attempts?"

Susie was looking at Jeremy all along. He didn't seem to take her answer equally as solemn. His glare overall suggested he wasn't moved by any part of Susie's statement. And he still managed to startle Susie.

He walked a step closer to her until their faces were a few inches apart, forming a silhouette that closed in on light. Susie's stare garnered a lot more confusion than she thought was necessary. He spoke before she almost assumed he was on the verge of doing what could only be assumed by this awkward position.

"That's why in order to beat the Boss…we must…play by its rules until it's safe to discard of them" said Jeremy, swaying Susie's mind into an earlier period.

"When the time is right, patience is not a virtue. It's an obstacle we treat like one until it's finally out of our corridor and ready to let us pass" He said.

"And plus, you're too young to go…yourself..."

Susie was thrown off by the last bit. Jeremy made it sound like he didn't have a way with words. Was he trying to protect her or make himself indecent from that last phrase?

Even more proof came as Jeremy closed his eyes, making everything around Susie a lot more quiet than anticipated. She wouldn't have minded if she could simply walk away from this unorthodox condition.

"Jeremy, what are you doing?" said Susie, before freezing by how close he'd gotten.

His eyes were really closed as Susie could still see. She was now close enough to see the sweat glimmer on the pores of his nose.

"Don't make any noise" He said, still keeping his eyes shut "When will we ever have a chance like this?"

Susie stood there as though she was expected to follow the motion hinted by Jeremy. She was dead frozen, and her shock was turning more torturous by the second. But she didn't move for even after two minutes.

Everything was far past either of their judgment given the circumstances. And yet Susie's arrogance refused to make her admit sane defeat.  
>But it was too late for Jeremy.<p>

"No!" she said, compress her eyelids even tighter than Jeremy "I won't do this anymore! I can't do this to Calvin!...I LOVE HIM!"

Susie turned away from Jeremy and ran back into the apartment.

The police station stood next to Calvin, as did his task. He could've walked past those doors and reported this in order to have a private investigator take it from there. And yet, it all still felt so unsuited. It slipped his mind the same way a feather that was fun to look at but useless enough to throw away one second later did.

Calvin didn't know where else to turn, even if in retrospect, he didn't have an actual choice. As he walked out into the forest laden road, it occurred to him one more place: Mystic River.

The darkness on his way there reminded him a lot of those last few words he shared with Sue, _before she figured out who he was._

"Wait, I'm supposed to be dead by now!"

"What's your name?"

"Does it matter if you're going to kill me otherwise?"

"No, so spit it out!"

"Calvin, what's it to you?-"

The Subordinate studied its surroundings, pretending Calvin no longer existed. It set its sight on the guillotine before it took hold of then. Calvin watched as it removed the bladed component and gave it to Calvin.

"What are you up to?" asked Calvin.

The Subordinate didn't answer, but instead, entered into the dungeon's darkness.

"Over here, you idiot!" said its ghastly undertone.

Calvin followed the direction he thought it went.

To his appall, he saw the subordinate standing next to am open cellar door .

"What are you doing?" asked Calvin before the Subordinate impatiently waved the blade at his face.

"Just take and split!" it said, trying to push Calvin into the doorway.

"Listen, I have my reasons to delay executions, but rarely does there come a time when it's unnecessary like today. You have twenty minutes before the doubts on your demise start soaring, once it spreads; it's either your life or just your hand!"

"What are you talking about? Can't I just call the cops or the FB-?"

"NOOO!" It yelled, perhaps shying Calvin's real perception of the darkness as well. He certainly didn't feel very courageous after all.

"They don't deserve to die anymore than you do! I still have a job to attend here. All you have to worry about is finding something that'll stop the bleeding!"

"What are you…" said Calvin, interrupted by his own complete comprehension. He looked at his right arm, the one with the pager attached like a bracelet, and measured the significance of the Subordinate's words.

"Oh"

"Death doesn't feel so quick now, does it? Now get the hell out of here!" said the subordinate.

Calvin knew it had less reason to doubt the subordinate than before. If it wasn't luck, however, he was still curious as to where this would lead him if not death.

And yet he still suspected the price of freedom was bound to cost more.

He walked his way towards the exit, but not before reaching for something inside his pocket.

"Oh wait! I should probably-" said Calvin as he took out a card with Jeremy's address. He didn't have a chance to pick it up outside of the abyss when the subordinate nervously closed the door.

And that was the last he ever saw of her before knowing she was the subordinate. It would've worked out if he'd finished knowing her then than he did as of late.

Cause it was due to it that Calvin saw her contradict herself so vaguely.

_"You can't run from it, Calvin. The best way to solve a problem is always to look at it in the eyes before getting it over with!"  
><em>  
>Calvin didn't understand anything she was implying. She encouraged the kind of bravery she didn't have but successfully enforced anyway.<p>

It reminded him of how made he was when she failed to see their situation outside the box.

"She's wrong! They're all wrong if they just think about it for one damn second! What's the point if they won't agree with me!? Vengeance and justice are not the same thing!" he exploded to himself as he walked back and forth from the pier. He was used to talking to himself, especially after getting out of an argument.

The difference here was that this was the first one he'd won.

"I can't believe I'm here all alone!" said Calvin, finally settling down "Way to go, Calvin, you're officially a sociopath now!"

Calvin sat on the edge of the very pier. The night wasn't dark enough to see whatever reflection came from the lake. In fact, it was thanks to the waning moon's reflection that he could still himself amongst the ripples.

He felt like he was staring into the face of real disappointment. The face that said he might've been the only one who gave a crap around here.

"But were you always?"

This felt like an impossibly rare moment for Calvin. He considered his surroundings to be perfect if not more. The temperature was moderate, the only sounds were crickets, and he was most certain everything was invisible do to the stark shadows which made only the slight moon's reflection noticeable.

Then he heard a quack.

Below him, two ducks swam past his reflection. He was sort of expecting a flock of ducklings to follow, but they didn't.

Go figure.

"That's not me" he said, once his reflection became clear after all the ripples disappeared.

Nothing mattered much anymore. Maybe Sue was right; Calvin didn't even remember his childhood. He didn't even remember that he forgot he had one. Sue could've been someone there to knock some long awaited sense into him.

"Just…who was I?"

Calvin didn't want to be alone. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine. It didn't matter what came first, he was just tired of seeing anything that already existed without being able to come up with something himself. He wanted to feel like a kid again.

The wind blew; Calvin could feel the cold outdoors getting to him, so it was no use.

He knew staying down to earth had a negative impact on his point of view. All he could do was enjoy whatever concrete activity he could find to distract himself from the impossible. Like the idea that he and Sue could've had something, at least a friendship.

He threw a pebble into the water, watched it skip a couple of times and the ripples alter the moon's reflection. Knowing it was over, Calvin turned around, preparing to leave.

Suddenly, a deep, ominous voice came from an unknown direction. Invisible, it was still close enough for him to hear.

"CALVIN"

He froze and turned his head to the emptiness of the pier. Needless to say some dark clouds began forming out of nowhere.

He didn't suspect to notice them until he looked down.

"Wait…Who said that?" said Calvin before looking down on his own reflection. He couldn't explain what he really saw:

The face of a cartoon based Tiger.

_Calvin…"_ said the bioluminescent cat's reflection _"You have forgotten me"_

It took Calvin only a random nudge to look up and witness the grandeur of his disbelief. The clouds surrounded a light source which was the same Tiger, except lacking the iris in his eyes which glowed brightly.

Calvin grasped the side of his head.

"Sociopath and hallucinating on the same night…" he said to himself. Then he looked back and forth on the same place he was in. "…or is this why they call it Mystic River?"

The tiger didn't seem to budge, except for his mouth. This was almost similar to receiving a prerecorded cgi hologram from someone else. The only difference was this seeming to appear more far-fetched, realistic and therefore epic.

"You have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me"

said the tiger, showing some real emotion for a second there._ "Look inside you, Calvin, you are more than what you've done to yourself! There is still time to find your friend and renew your faith"_

Calvin felt a great fraction of his size when looking up at the heavens from which the cat spoke to him. He didn't know if he was equal in some manner, but didn't want to fear him.

"Faith in what? And who are you anyway?" asked Calvin. The tiger didn't pay any focus to Calvin as if already knowing it was far from important.

"Remember who you are! You are the one who made me as a five year old! You are a great innovator, a visionary amongst men! And you…"

Calvin was all ears on the last one.

"…you are the one who can stop the Bilk Division"

Anyone could've been amazed by how this all seemed to take place. Calvin didn't seem to and treated it as if it'd happened to him before, for the strangest reason.

"Don't you mean the Se-?" said Calvin halfway, before he saw the clouds fade into the night.

"Remember"

said the tiger, as his head tucked itself backwards into the clam storm. Soon he began forming part of the sky.

"Wait!" yelled Calvin, stretching his arm as far as he could reach.

"Come back Hobbes! I still haven't gotten your-"

Calvin was shocked. He never knew what he was talking about, until now. In fact, he didn't even know himself before. He had finally been given the pieces of his past he thought were as imaginary as his oldest friend he just talked with.

"Name…" said Calvin, self-conscious for once.

Calvin stood there, awestruck at the feat of communicating in his own dreams without feeling the slightest bit comatose. His new mission then was asking Sue if there was anything between her he might've known even though he lost years ago.

It didn't become obvious right away that Calvin had forgotten when he hid his quadruple barreled Spiffweiser between the bushes. In between trying to form a solution with new problems by discovering old ones, Calvin was just glad he remembered.

He walked all the way to the bushes, which wasn't but four yards away from the pier's standing point. He kneeled down and grabbed hold of it once he saw it.  
>Then a noise came before he could consider getting back on his trail.<p>

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_Lion King, whodathought._


	16. Chapter 15: The Boss Returns

**Chapter 15: The Boss Returns**

Jeremy made his path back from the Seven-eleven he'd previously paid a visit too since yesterday as this whole tumult began. Only he was sure Susie wasn't chasing him this time.

Either way, it was still darker than ever around the corridors of the very vicinity he walked through.

He started to hear a noise follow him from what he could tell was at first behind him, until he turned around. The streets were desolate and empty, with the occasional lamppost that created a grave depth of field from where he stood.

But then, Jeremy was frozen to turn back around.

It was now likely that one of the members was on his appendage and would surprise him. For this, he turned his head slowly, even if his eyes were already fixated on the location.

From far away, he thought he saw the silhouette of that very hooded figure, reflecting itself from the flickering light of a lamppost. It didn't seem to move though, so Jeremy took the risk and walked forward until he could see if its shape was what it turned out to be.

"Wait a minute" said Jeremy, happily relieved as he looked down upon the watch shaped object. "You're the tracking device I gave Calvin!"

Jeremy crouched down to look at it well, something he couldn't recognize even as he'd manufactured it himself. With such a small watch-like antennae with a small camera lens, it was somewhat unwise that Calvin decided to abandon it, so Jeremy reached for its contents.

The second he touched the device, something else touched his head.

Susie did her best to engulf the tears as she narrowed towards Ignatz, who saw her come inside the living room.

"How'd it go with Calvin?" asked Ignatz.

Susie returned a forlorn stare at the little rodent. To think he was still calling her by her weak pseudonym even after what had happened.

"Shouldn't you know? Being psychic and all?" she asked, looking into his black marbles of eyes. Ignatz only shrugged.

"Sigh, I'm sorry Ignatz, but me and Calvin go a long way back and-"

"No, I understand, and with all due respect, I'm with Calvin on this one" interrupted Ignatz "He's actually been around the sect long enough to understand its sacraments. The problem was when he stayed for too long"

It was the same story. Susie couldn't take another person reminding her of why intellect suddenly overpowered intuition. It seemed as if she was still being tested for something she already passed a long time ago.

"By the way" said Susie, trying to conjure up another topic. "Thanks for helping me back at the final headquarters. I surely would've died to both the chipmunks and that hackneyed Squirrel without your team to back me up"

Ignatz didn't turn his head in the least as she said that, even though his ears did partially twitch after she was done. She could never tell when or whether he was being psychic or not.

"It was nothing, what are pets for?" replied Ignatz.

"What do you mean pets? We're all equals, Ignatz, at least Jeremy, Calvin and I think so"

"Of course you do, Susie, you think outside of the box. I never said there was anything wrong with that. But what about any other person in particular who only believes what science and religion tells them?"

Susie was puzzled by how Ignatz suddenly brought the misanthropy on the world into this.

"In what sense do you mean?" she asked.

Ignatz closed his eyes for this next reply.

"Don't look up" said the synthetic demon of a voice.

Jeremy technically imagined it was the barrel of a colt that pierced his noggin and lost half of his smile once he gave a desperate sigh. He released his reach of the apparatus before closing his eyes.

"Dude, I should've known" replied Jeremy sullenly. "You members patrol this area like a festival for the Gestapo"

The veiled in the dark member coerced the edge of the gun further, giving Jeremy no option other than to face up anyway.

"Here's how we're going to play it out" began the member, as if already having it sketched out. "You're going to lead the way towards the rest of the crew, and-"

It was interrupted by Jeremy's insolent smile, following a much more infuriating chuckle as if Jeremy was calling the member an amateur by his simple choice of words.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think so. I'm afraid you and I... we both know, man... no matter what happens to anybody else in that room... the two of us aren't going anywhere." Replied Jeremy, who smiled as he imagined how disappointed the member must've felt underneath that contemptuous mask.  
>He regretted it after hearing the gun incline.<p>

"I was just messing with your gravel, you're useless" the member replied, giving Jeremy a real reason to dread.

"Wait!" said Jeremy, allowing his last hint of fear to escape him "Okay, kill me, but leave Sue out of it!"

The voice chortled, though Jeremy could've sworn it sounded more like a fake cough.

"Don't worry, the Boss isn't planning on liquidating her itself" said the voice, in a somewhat eerie albeit reassuring voice.

Jeremy closed his eyes now, waiting for the bullet.

"Okay then" said Jeremy, who expected himself somewhere else five seconds later.

"First, take that soda can out" said the member, pointing at the Arizona inside of Jeremy's bag "NOW!"

Jeremy might've realized just how Calvin must've felt when granted mercy by an unexpected ally, even if he was counting his chickens before they hatched.

He grasped the liter of a can and detained it for the member to hold.

"I want you to drink what´s inside" said the member, making Jeremy feel somewhat weird. He never expected that kind of request from someone who guided him to death's row. Jeremy looked at the member, then at the can, then back at the member in wondering why this was necessary.

"Before I die?" he asked.

He witnessed as the member continued aiming the gun but had his other hand in his pocket, as though to reach something more.

"The lord himself knew better than to die thirsty" the member replied.

Jeremy found it somewhat ghastly to identify the member's obscure purpose. Not all well known murderers brought religion into their task at the last minute.

Jeremy opened the can and took the first sip. The watermelon flavor was hard to let go, so Jeremy decided to sip it down all at once. The member watched as he guardedly slipped a blade out of his hood's pocket.

He coughed out a content moan as he swallowed the last of it.

"I must say…damn good stuff" said Jeremy, holding out the can as if to make sure he knew what he'd just drank.

"Beats the hell out of beer or antifreeze"

"Granted" replied the member in a low whisper.

The blade came down in one quick vertical budge.

"Have you heard the story, fable mind you, of a boy named Marcus, who felt sorry for that same kung fu squirrel we defeated?" asked Ignatz.

"No, no I haven't"

"Let's just say the squirrel felt pretty damn sorry for him after it betrayed its pity"

"Maybe I'm wrong, Ignatz, but I don't think I know what you're trying to say"

Ignatz sighed, making Susie seem as if there was something else she wasn't told about, if only that was enough to stop her from trying to reach Ignatz's level.

"Don't worry, Susie, there's so much about the Bilk Division not everyone gets" he replied beningly.

"But I know enough that you read minds, so I'll believe anything else you throw at me"

"Including treason?"

Susie was suddenly puzzled and mortified by this. She was on the verge of believing Ignatz might just make her head explode or something.

"What?" she asked, keeping her image of that tiny rodent.

Ignatz looked up at Susie, speechless, waiting for her to pay the most attention to him. The most Susie knew about rodents was enough to see how they literally spoke their mind. She at first didn't blame the idea since it might've been impossible for them to move their mouths in speaking.

But for the first time since their summit, Ignatz surmounted that theory when Susie watched his lips move to every word he said whether it was with his mind or actually in speech:

"I'm sorry, Susie, they had my family"

Ignatz left Susie somewhat confused by the way he worded this. As much as she wanted to follow rodent logic, it didn't add up very much.

"I don't quite follow what you're-" said Susie, before hearing the doorbell.

Susie walked all the way to the door and opened She saw it was Jeremy, standing there the same way he did as he waited for Susie to come by.

"Jeremy, that was quick" said Susie, noticing the light bag he carried "Or did you even go to Seven elev-"

The blood oozed from Jeremy's mouth as he gave a lifeless burp. Susie was a few inches away from the trail which Jeremy fell down to.

Susie's heartbeat grew as she watched her friend lie stomach first on a growing puddle of his fluids. She was given the full presence of the undersized stiletto which impaled his back.

"NO!" yelled Susie, about to kneel towards his companion. Just then, she lost control of her feet, and then her hands, until not one part of her body could move at her will.

"Your friend was right" said Ignatz, no longer speaking through thought "Betraying it was easier than gaining your trust"

It was then when Susie could see to her horror as the party from hell began to start. She witnessed as what appeared to be two hooded figures, resembling hobbits dressed as black riders, enter the door, carrying gallons of kerosene.

Members.

"Don't release until I give the word" said one rationally mutilated voice from behind the members. The very pair broke apart as they made way for both another and one particular shape slightly bigger than the first two but wearing what could only be made out as a head-on replica of Sauron's mask.

Susie didn't need to know Lord of the Rings to instantly recognize the boss of the sect she was finally granted a rendezvous for.

"Affirmitive, my Boss!" the other three members replied. They formed an open trail as the two members stood on both sides of the walls while the other member stood behind its master. This left the boss to confront the girl and the rodent exclusively.

"Okay, Boss, a deal's a deal!" shouted Ignatz as he stood in front of the petrified being "Will you let my wife and sons go now?"

The boss directed its attention onto Ignatz once it was close enough to spot it. It took each step carefully to slowly make its way to the mouse's attention.

"That's right, Ignatz, now you get to see your family again!" said the boss in an unusually gleeful tone. The two members looked at each other, shrugging themselves by how merciful the boss was being, on even such a rare occasion.

Either way, Ignatz smiled, which looked weirder than usual, at least for a mouse.

"Oh Yes! Thank you! Thank you so much! I knew we had a deal!" cheered Ignatz fervently.

"You've got it, little guy" replied the boss as it took out a cell phone and dialed a set of numbers. It began speaking once the ringing stopped.

"¿Bueno? ¡Felipe, este es el Jefe de La División! ¡Vos Inyéctalos ahora mismo!" said the boss before snapping the phone shut.

The last words seemed to bring a hard chill down Ignatz. He wasn't able to read the boss' mind as long as he was still controlling Susie, but he could still suspect if The Boss did what he didn't wish to imagine.

"Wait a minute, what does that translate to?" asked Ignatz, his happy tone now the literal opposite.

The boss faced Ignatz as if he had just made the worst threat conceivable. It kneeled down so as to explain things with as much eye level as possible.

"It translates to this: the deal was you bring me both the former member and the former subordinate, together" said the boss, still sympathetically. "Now I don't know about your approach, but I'd think someone with that range of thought would be capable of keeping in mind something so feeble, don't you agree?"

Ignatz was suspicious enough to ignore the boss's other hand as it hid it on its back.

"What do you mean?" asked Ignatz, hoping the boss would be more specific.

Instead, he got a tone which could make anyone swear the Boss would have to be smiling underneath the dismal mask.

"I mean you get to see your family again!" said the boss happily before a loud sound tagged along.

BAM!

"Nothing more or less"

Susie only saw a great mass of slick debris and brains all over the ground known as the remains of Ignatz before she felt a greater shock. The two members shot tazers right into Susie's neck, paralyzing her almost into a blackout.

The angle was enough to let her see the colt which the boss now handed to the member beside it as the other two members came up to Susie so as to tie her up.

The boss followed them in order to gain Susie's eye level now.

"Ah, poor Jeremy Johnson, he could design the pagers needed for our movement to stay in line, but never got around deactivating them, eh ol' sub?" said the Boss, viciously sardonic as ever, lead by its tendency to fake empathy.

The members were done tying Susie up from her feet and arms as the boss grabbed hold of her face.

"How are the waters you're swimming in? I'd imagine pretty deep since the ice above you isn't so thin now" said the Boss, letting go of her face before making a hand signal by twirling its sole index finger in the air, giving the members a cue to carry her out once they finished pouring kerosene all over the place.

"Ignatz got what he was asking for when he betrayed you. He knew how to play by the rules rather than rely on so many "cheatcodes" like you"

The boss looks at one member, while the two other members start dumping the kerosene all over the apartment. The one member handed the boss a set of matches, in which the boss waited until every inch of the apartment was wet with inflammable fluids.

"And seeing as the last place he conveyed me was Calvin's hideout, prepare to meet the sportsmanship behind failure" said the boss as Susie was carried out by the two members while the boss became the last one to exit the dwelling.

"Next stop: Mystic River"

The boss lit a match and threw it inside as swiftly as it closed the door. Needless in doing so as the door also incinerated, creating a heavily lit outline of an explosion towards the boss' form, surrounded by a great ball of fire which burned it all down. It was as if oblivion's inferno followed wherever the boss went.

The members proceeded walking after seeing the boss was surprisingly unscathed from the flames.

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	17. Chapter 16: Two Can Lose at that Game 1

**Chapter 16: Two Can Lose at that Game Part 1**

It wasn't obvious, right away, that Calvin had forgotten where exactly he hid his quadruple barrel Spiffweiser between the bushes. In trying to form a solution with new problems by discovering old ones, Calvin was just glad he remembered.

He walked all the way to one bush, which wasn't but six yards away from the pier's standing point. He kneeled down and grabbed hold of it once he saw it.

Then a noise came before he could consider getting back on his trail. Right away, he hid from the approaching company.

He looked through the leaves to see what even his eyes would've found a fib if they shared an opinion: Two members, holding someone with a bag over their face, walked into the pier, far enough to be in the middle of the edge and the link.

And with one member strolled the Boss, following just a gap behind the two members.

"What are they doing here?"

asked Calvin to himself, gripping the gun for an imminent reason. Then he instantly recognized the face within the bag.

"SUE!"

The two members and Susie, between them, stood closest to the edge as the Boss and the subordinate beside it was about two yards away. Calvin could only watch in anticipation of what might happen if he chose not to arbitrate.

"Here we are, Mystic River" said the Boss, deliberately looking over the trees that blocked the horizon. Then, it looked back at Susie, whose head was still suppressed with a bag. It walked slowly towards her as it spoke.

"While you, my dear subordinate, are finally by my side again" it said fiendishly, removing the bag eventually. Susie was moist with enough sweat to have previously dunked from the river itself.

"And yet It's you I want to kill, not this moment, so I'll make it last"

Susie was unable to move, her wrists were still tied together to her back. He legs were also roped together, leaving her with just as much options as she had when Ignatz betrayed her. All she could do was watch as the Boss made its view towards her.

Calvin reloaded his Spiffweiser after taking a close glance at what the boss showed Sue. It took out the same colt it had previously used. It almost seemed like it was about to aim at her.

Then the boss took something else out: a device that aped a small, Phillips C-DI controller, except with lesser buttons.

"These pagers…What really interests me, is the way they testify, just like any other technological advancement, how obsolete some of the older designs in life are becoming." began the boss, exhibiting the pager on all sides, to make certain Susie looked at it well.

"The gun is the new penchant for honorable killing in western culture now that I can simply push a button and deactivate anyone I see. Who wants a samurai sword when all you need is a bullet?"

Susie was beginning to regain the ability to speak. She was somewhat skeptical about the boss's handling of the pager and the colt, twirling it as if it could shoot water instead of the very slug that exploded into Ignatz.

"I'd usually ask if you have any dying requests. I'll grant you your wish of hearing out both my identity and plans instead, as useless as they are now" finished the boss as it handed the colt to one of its members.

At this time, Susie pressed away the moderation of her stubborn resolve and tried to talk with the boss. She knew this might be where the boss would undoubtedly dispose of her, but she couldn't let it have the last word.

She knew how when it came to defeat, the boss loved conquering the mind as much as the body.

"If you know they're useless, why bother telling me?" asked Susie resentfully.

The other members mildly flinched, as if the boss was to punish them as well for Susie's misdoing. The boss itself walked towards Susie, who was still lying on her back, repressed of any useful movement. The boss stood in silence before it crouched down to look at Susie.

In the blink of an eye, the boss clutched Susie's neck and hung her up until she stood tall. They were almost of equal size, five feet seven, even if Susie seemed to tower over her when the boss hoisted her to that great of a height.

"I already know about your precious boyfriend and how you let him off scot-free, a fact useless on its own now than it was then, don't forget Ignatz was in on this since he met you" said the boss happily, even if it was hard to tell with the always stale baritone of a tongue.

Susie knew what pity felt like, and this was as degrading as it got. Somewhere, she knew the boss was making her see the closest she'll ever get to looking down on it.

"You…aggressive…monster…I don't want your stupid offers anymore…I just want you to get this done with." Said Susie, getting choked by the boss' gripped.

The boss held her close to its face, annihilating any principles of personal space left. Calvin tried to take a chance at aiming all four of them, but at the risk of blowing his cover due to the loud expansion his gun made, he stood still.

"Now now, I wouldn't say that. For all we know, he could be watching you!" said the boss, cherishing the squint of oppression Susie tried to deny.

"And he sure wouldn't want to face the uneasy decision of avenging his girlfriend once he fails to stop me!"

She was sure the boss was referring to Calvin, a threat which poked at Susie's rage. The boss knew enough history to make sure Susie wouldn't go without leaving behind her dignity. It wanted her to know how microscopic her rank became at this point.

Susie could spit at it, especially if she had the chance to remove the pretentious Sauron mask. She didn't like to taste defeat even as she swallowed it.

"LEAVE HIM OUT OF THIS!" yelled Susie, hoping it went past the cheap wires which blocked the boss' eyes.

Maybe it was intuition, but beyond explanation, Susie could tell the boss was amused by her quick enragement. Almost months since they last met and Susie could still distinguish the Boss' body language.

And it also beat Susie to another stark comeback.

"So why didn't you?" asked the boss, its vile tone now more than noticeable. It let go of Susie, letting her fall down on the hardwood, and walked back toward the other members. It only made it halfway to make Susie see it didn't have plans to turn around until it was finished talking.

"Remember how I told you we were like Illuminados? Heh, Well the way I see it, your mission failed after you were naïve enough to think your heroic deeds prevailed without being corrupted" began the boss as it crossed its arms. The mere mention of "hero" brought a cold uneasy feeling down Susie's body; hopefully this wasn't related to fear. It became less likely when the boss continued speaking.

"I admit, I was very entertained by how you followed every cliché in the Hollywood guide, letting me take a back seat to your predictable exploits, from the first to final act!"

"To show you my appreciation, I will reveal to you Osmond Saddler's true form, and in the process, free your friend from his world of clichés!"

The boss reminded Susie well of why she was here to begin with. She thought she could change the game by cheating her way out of it. Here she was to be reminded why game sharks lost their use when they found a way to deactivate them.

It's true, Susie wasn't as up to date with the way a collective mindset of gamers worked nowadays, mainly since it's devolved to dependence on web experiences that only simulated personal co-op rather than actually promote it.

But beyond that, she saw hot the boss was willing to show its face in exchange for devaluing Calvin's moral constitution the same way Susie was devalued as a rank.

"You think you can compel him to turn against himself when you don't know him!" yelled Susie, hoping logic could turn the boss down.

The boss simply continued adjusting its headset as if it were expecting Susie to step on that base. Susie was indeed starting to see how small she was compared to not only the boss' position but its manipulative ego.

And Susie wasn't even given the smallest hint of what was about to come next.

"Death and embarrassment, vengeance and justice, force and compulsion, all incomparable amongst one another" it said, as it turned off the voice scrambler.

After that, the scary voice morphed into a smaller, friendlier hue in spite of how it was said. The tenor scuttled statically until it sounded like nothing Susie could expect. It now sounded like her voice once it spoke.

Only a few years younger.

"Besides, he didn't know you either" said the boss in its newly high-pitched voice, before it removed the Sauron mask to give its ex subordinate the greatest revelation she would ever misinterpret.

Indeed, the boss divulged its face as a girl, about twelve going on thirteen, brown eyes, light brunette hair and some irregularly large bangs.

_The innocent aren't young anymore.  
><em>  
>"Did he, Susan Derkins?"<p>

Susie's mind flashed into a great state of appall. It was enough that the boss was someone smarter and younger than her, and it was too much that she inexplicably knew her name if hopefully not who she was.

But to say it out in the open?

"GASP" uttered Susie, the highlight on her pupil quaking tearfully.

The boss knew Susie was absorbing her misery within her wicked scowl. She could easily tease Susie some more, wallowing her state as the greatest embarrassment Susie could receive. She wanted to make sure Susie wished she could cover her ears after knowing why she could care less about anyone's appearance.

"Two identities for the stake of one, dear" said the boss, giving Susie a smile usually innocent for a girl her age.

This was far from Susie's concern, no matter if the boss was always ahead of her. She was now in a state where the first, if not most appropriate, thing that came to her mind was what came out.

"How…did you know my name?" Susie asked, thinking there was a more obvious explanation than she assumed.

Next the boss looked down on Susie without opening her mouth to speak. This gave Susie a mood she found too familiar. The idea came out after she heard the boss' voice without really listening to it.

If Susie didn't know any better, she'd say the voices were in her head: The boss was also psychic.

"Funny, if a mouse wastes its telepathy on you long enough, there's bound to be offshoots"

said the boss, relishing Susie's downgraded mood like a treat.

"What's the matter, Susie? You should be happy I've divulged enough for your boyfriend to know"

Susie didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell how Calvin must be thinking of her right then, assuming he knew who she really was yet. This situation brought her into the worst déjà vu of her life.

She would've been strong enough, if only the boss sided on the principles she was contradicting. Nothing was ever as different as it looked.

"Then who…the HELL…am I?" asked Calvin, enunciating every word.

"HUH? I'VE HAD IT UP TO FUCKING EVEREST WITH YOUR SUSPICIOUS PERFORMANCE! You claim I keep too many secrets when you yourself seem to know more about me than I ever did!"

Nothing.

"This is a fucking nightmare" said Susie, in belief that was enough to distract herself from really admitting defeat, even if she was still giving in to the pain.

The boss continued to taunt her before making her final decision.

"There there, Susan, you think we haven't walked that thin line before. In a video game cult, you're not the only one who wishes she was perfect without needing to be someone else" said the boss, making her sympathetic tone ironically more sardonic with her real voice. This annoyed Susie now.

"I was right, it's all cliché, isn't it? Maybe it's time I-"

"Kill me? Like that blond girl…the day you left me out in the cold?" said Susie dejectedly. Her words were like tears of regret she could not take back.

The boss began to see how Susie never allowed her emotions to get in the way of logic on this one. Susie didn't know that having been a puppet to this trap, the boss knew how to use her own strength against her.

"I'm the Boss, I can speak about betrayal from experience." Said the boss, reminding Susie of what she did: twice.

"Maybe I should keep the story and have your boyfriend die with a plot hole the same as you with a bullet hole. After all, I promised an explanation the same way you promised killing that blind skank"

Susie could only think of one excuse to blockade the boss' malevolent flukes, even if she gave up understanding the illogical significance wagers held by now.

"Why didn't you just kill her yourself if you were going to anyway?" said Susie, gasping like she'd just yelled out the question.

The boss kneeled down to her level once again, looking into her eyes, making sure Susie could at least try to release any sign of arrogance she had left within her. It almost made her see how similar it was as when she first saw Calvin after so many years.

Susie's eyes expanded terrified of what she was seeing. The boss' gaze was almost aping Calvin's that day in the dungeon: unbearable yet powerful, and aware of how submissive Susie had always been.

Her eyes were playing tricks on her when both the boss' face and Calvin's overlapped as she spoke.

"Oh Susie, Susie, Susie. You still think I was aiming for Denise after your untimely failure, don't you?" said the boss, absorbing Susie's petrified glare without even blinking. She made her see death before it was given to her.

"Your boyfriend was right, by following the rules, you could've overthrown me and been somebody, the head of this new drug you call! Instead of scum, which is what you are, every time you look in a dirty mirror, that's you! Let's face it. It was you, Susie!"

The boss then stood up, in which Susie couldn't tell who she was anymore. She could really be Calvin for all she knew. It didn't matter anymore, knowing whose side he was on.

He too wanted to play by the rules.

"Hiring you was my real weakness!"

By seeing Susie droop her head was how the boss knew she was ready to go. The boss turned around to walk towards her members. She was insensible of the sneer Susie gave two seconds later.

But not of the snicker.

The boss turned back around in less time than it took her to walk away, believing it wasn't impossible for Susie to have gone crazy from denial.

Though she still hoped this was far from the case.

"Oh no, I know your weakness, it's been crystal for a while now…" said Susie, before raising her head back up and at the boss.

She seemed to be happier than she shouldn't be.

"…you like Calvin, don't you?"

The boss raised an eyebrow. She somewhat expected a more coherent retaliation from her old subordinate. This didn't mean she wasn't going to play along.

"Why would I?" asked the boss, refusing to let Susie's smile annoy her.

"I figured after you knew, or more appropriately, assumed I was his girlfriend, you might've wanted to take me out of the picture and have him to yourself. You did want him to replace the throne if he was to win after he failed to heed your command after all." Said Susie, almost confusing even herself.

"And since he wanted the throne himself, I figured that was more than liable to his position once you knew that"

"Well…I don't…that doesn't mean…"

"There's just one problem: Like you said, what if he sees you kill me? What will he think of you then? It wouldn't matter if he knew you did like him, given the type of armaments he's wrought, you'd be dead."

"What's your point?! I have no interests in your boyfriend! I have no interests in any boy-"

The boss thought Susie was just being annoying. She didn't know how far she was trying to take this. The boss looked into her eyes, seeing nothing new.

Then she looked closely into her pupil to see it behave differently. The more she looked into it, the more it shrank. Once it was too small to see, the brown iris surrounding it began changing into a lighter color.

Almost as if it was…glowing.

"My point is this: First the Blind girl, now me?" said Susie, her eyes continuing to flash "Not only would he be pulling the trigger adjacent to him, he'd also be…as they would say in your school…"

The boss listened whilst looking into Susie's radiating eyes. It was all so confusing, but maybe the boss didn't think she'd bring herself to believe what was happening. Then the boss heard Susie's final words before it all turned around.

"…pulling a Jason…"

The boss swiftly took a step back. She was shocked for the first time since she could remember. Her eyes enlarged more than Susie's ever did when she was first divulged. Finally, Susie spoke without moving her beaming lips.

Or only for the boss she did.

_"…wouldn't he, Eileen Jacobson?"_

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	18. Chapter 17: Two Can Lose at that Game 2

**Chapter 17: Two Can Lose at that Game Part 2**

"GASP" she said.

The gig was up; Eileen had been discovered by her own subordinate.

But how? She and Ignatz were psychically connected to each other, how could Susie possible gain that ability without her knowing?

"Like you said, "boss", Ignatz got what he was asking for. Not for betraying me, but at the expense of your other presumption…" said Susie before commencing a long explanation via a picturesque show and through conversations of the mind once more.

"…He didn't need cheatcodes…he **was** one!"

Suddenly, everything in front of Eileen vanished into a coagulated mixture of red and black, like an invisible elevator down the center of the earth. She figured this must be how Susie planned to guide her as the entire image faded into a Boston Brownstone.  
>This was where Susie hid.<p>

Except she was in plain sight along with Jeremy, who still pushed his head towards her as if ready to make out. Eileen could hear everything at that level.

"And plus, you're too young to go…yourself" Jeremy finished.

Susie was thrown off by the last bit. Was he trying to protect her or make himself indecent from that last phrase?

Even more proof came as Jeremy closed his eyes, making everything around Susie a lot more quiet than anticipated. She wouldn't have minded if she could simply walk away from this unorthodox condition.

"Jeremy, what are you doing?" said Susie, before freezing by how close he'd gotten.

His eyes were really closed as Susie could still see. She was now close enough to see the sweat glimmer on the pores of his nose.

"Don't make any noise whatsoever" He said, still keeping his eyes shut "When will we ever have a chance like this?"

Susie stood there as though she was expected to follow the motion hinted by Jeremy. She was dead frozen, and her shock was turning more torturous by the second. But she didn't move for even after two minutes.

During that time, her mind seemed to gain its own voice.

It was there that things started making sense for Eileen, little by little, even if she was already shocked as it was.

"Hello" _said Jeremy's voice in the same echo._

"What? Who said that?" _asked Susie's, commencing the discussion._

"Susie, it's me, Jeremy, I'm speaking telepathically"

"What?! How?"

"Like this"

"No, how the hell can you do that?"

"Ignatz transferred a portion of his powers onto me during your fight with the second headquarters" _he continued, taking a short second to blink._ "I need to talk with you concerning how you're going to kill the boss"

"It's like I said, we'll wait for it to come to us-"

"No…we can't, if it finds us, we'll just be adding distance to its trajectory"

Everything was far past either of their judgment given the circumstances. And yet Susie's arrogance refused to make her admit sane defeat.

"The way I see it, only one of us can come out alive from this and it's not going to be either me or Ignatz…"

"WHAT?"

"That's right, it's either you, or-"

Susie caught the meaning behind it all. It seemed as if her eyes were hurting as they tried their best not to flinch. She really didn't have any option.

"No!" she said, compress her eyelids even tighter than Jeremy "I won't do this anymore! I can't do this to Calvin!...I LOVE HIM!"

Susie turned away from Jeremy and ran back into the apartment.

That's when the world faded back into Mystic River. Eileen recoiled and looked both ways to see everything turn back to normal. Susie sat in the same edge of the pier, with the same menacing smile as she continued speaking telepathically.

"That tells you a fair understanding of what double agents like Ignatz were capable of"

said Susie before closing her eyes for another encircling

"Now here's what I know about you-"

The entire scenery faded once again, and Susie disappeared as the environment became one only Eileen could identify: her old elementary school. She spotted the cafeteria and another kid whose face she could always recognize.

Until Susie's voice interrupted her train of thought. It was like traveling back in time; only she couldn't change any events even if she wanted to.

"I know there's this boy you´ve been trying to impress since the day he knew you. You want him to at least like you, to know you more than just anyone else even though he drives a hard bargain, given that he doesn't like girls isn't helping out much"

said Susie as she saw Jason cursing Eileen for sneezing in front of him.

It never felt weird looking at herself when she was two to three years younger. It was almost like looking into a mirror that didn't gaze in return.

Only Susie found a way to strange things up after the young epitome of Eileen shifted through undulated darkness throughout their surroundings. Eileen saw it as a live Aftereffects episode when she now saw herself putting on a Tron-like mask with a spike emerging from the middle.

She was surrounded by numerous hooded members in what seemed like the abandoned Gym Susie destroyed before taking down Garfield.

"That's where you discover this. By taking it to the extremes and becoming the Morpheus of his dreams, the High Boss' title of the Bilk Division is now at the touch of your skin. Needless to say, but I'll go ahead anyways; you don't tell him right away. Instead, you lure him in, convert him, and squeeze him into a maze of loopholes until he's beyond excited to meet his hero, oblivious that it's his "future girlfriend" under the hood."

Eileen wished she knew how to break free of this trance, let alone see how Susie hid herself from the world.

Her world, where she saw herself now older but still concealed by the mask, handing the hooded Jason an envelope. It all faded to a neighborhood, one only Eileen recognized since she lived there.

This was all starting to make sense, it was when she made the discovery.

"After he's close enough to talk to you, you both agree to set up a secret date at his room, for the surprise of his life…"

Eileen, still revamped as the boss, scaled a tree nearby one house to enter into an already open window. She walked across a branch and somersaulted into the room. It was the first time she'd ever come close to seeing it, now she was in.

Jason's room.

She looked around, the typical Sci-Fi posters and action figures lied on the ground. She came across a reptile cage with an iguana inside while outside rested a post-it. It read "Gone to the bathroom, back in five minutes".

Eileen remembered she was very strict about setting up the rendezvous at precisely that minute, and yet she still let it slide on Jason's part for acknowledging five minutes as pretty short.

She tossed the paper into the small bin, where something else caught her mind.

"…only to be surprised yourself when you discover he does like the opposite gender!"

Eileen removed the mask for a second to take a better glimpse at the heart shaped origami card she managed to grab from the bin. It read "For my true love" on the cover.  
>It all came back to her when she reminded herself of how shocked she was when discovering Jason had a crush on someone else. She saw herself open the dismal paper, and flinched.<p>

"Oh, I can tell this is your favorite part!" said Susie, right behind the present Eileen, who couldn't see her disappear when she turned around. Eileen faced back to herself, knowing this was not over.

She looked at the younger version of herself, reading the card.

My feelings for you know no bounds.  
>That's why I shout "I love you zounds!"<br>I love you more than anything.  
>When I'm with you, I want to singe.<p>

Eileen's first and best assumption was Jason somewhat had a thing for her, especially since he was recycling the rhyme he'd mistakenly used for her a while back. Then she noticed two bigger details.

One was the newly added verse:

All other girls can only cease.  
>To look at you once and appease.<br>The beauty, envy I beseech.  
>Can come from my true love,<p>

You.

Next were the peculiar bumps neighboring the words as she passed through them. But one detail that she was lucky enough to find was the doubling of bumps next to the last word: You.

This was perhaps Braille as Jason tried to put it, in which Eileen still had a chance to feel relieved once she saw the misled Braille translation read six letters, most likely spelling out her name. It would've made sense had she not wandered into speculating the purpose of using that method to begin with.

Or the honest supposition that her name didn't rhyme with "appease".

That's why Eileen looked back at the letter, and saw one word, "sing", was misspelled as "singe".

But reading it in Braille as it was, it all made putrid sense when using the letters to decode it. They were all replaced to make out the message.

My feelings for you know no boun**d**s  
>That's why I shout "I love you zounds!"<br>I love you more than anything  
>Wh<strong>en<strong> I'm with you, **I** want to **s**ing**e**.

DENISE.

Eileen wanted to ask who she was. She wanted to hope it didn't have to do with that girl she always saw next to Peter for a long time.

If only she hadn't looked deep into the iguana's cage to single out the most dismal detail of all. There seemed to be a small piece of paper wedged underneath sticking out.

Eileen saw it. She saw herself see herself see the face of the one girl who honestly stole Jason's heart before she did, after removing the photo of her from that very spot.

Denise Russo, 17 at the time.

"It didn't have to go any further. Girls would've sufficed! There'd still be hope for you if you knew he only liked them, without heading towards the singular subject!"

Eileen figured out who she was and desperately recoiled after concentrating on the black glasses she wore. How was it that Jason even got a hold of this kind of picture? Did he really love her that much?

Love?

The world definitely turned its back on Eileen when she considered that term. Her face distorted in pain from trying to outlaw the emotions. When that Jason disliked her, it was upsetting. That Jason liked someone else, it was even worse, making her feel betrayed and worthless.

Now Jason actually loving someone else…

"You thought you were the only dark horse in this video game you reminded me was life. Everyone competes; most don't even know it, like his brother's ex when he first fancied her!"

Eileen watched in concealed dismay as her past self buried but one tear underneath the mask she hurriedly placed back on her head. This tear stained the photo of Denise, landing on her forehead.

Eileen departed the room past the same window she entered it, ten seconds before Jason returned.

"Then again, who's to say the Bilk Division didn't have a solution for this, or anything?"

The surroundings once again melted into Eileen's obscure flashbacks. Susie's voice no longer felt like the personality that uttered it rather than the devil narrating the set pieces of Eileen's life.

It all became as equally nightmarish when she saw many events pass, then fade in a ghostly fashion to the next.

First she witnessed herself, on top of a building in the morning, talking on her cell phone with Steve while holding an assault rifle.

Then she saw herself, now wearing the Balrog mask, aim for Susie, who refused to shoot Denise but inadvertently dodged Eileen's bullet, only striking Denise.

"Looks like

one stone missed the second bird,_ eh boss?"_

Finally, she saw herself look outside a medical superintendent´s office. That's when Eileen started to wonder how Susie got a hold of this memory.

It was the day when Eileen watched Jason, who somehow managed to infiltrate Denise's autopsy, cry his eyes out while holding the limp hand that still grasped the threatening card.

She could never stand seeing Jason lie next to the enveloped corpse of her and still have more feelings for her than she ever did for herself. He grasped his face with his other hand, as if his glasses were stapled on and it was the biggest pain to remove them.

"Murdering a blind girl taught you how to preserve your empathy, empathy only Jason deserved, sure he may have to suffer along the way, but you'll provide shelter. You'll just go to him, with your compassion as his ultimate sanctuary and-"

The moment she could hear his wails was when she looked away. But even as she left, that memory was still playing as if Susie knew how the rest would've ended.

How was this even tenuously possible? How could Susie tell her what she chose to miss? Did she manage to look before knowing? Did Ignatz find a way himself without her knowledge?

Or were they all just sincerely fucking with her now?

"Stop!" yelled Eileen, who never wanted to continue reliving that experience for a reason. Everything returned to its damp colors as Mystic River, the members and a bind upped Susie became present again.

She didn't know how Susie got all that information out of the blue, but she tried not to care. This was after all, the old assistant who got her kicks out of seeing kids bleed their stumps to death without even flinching.

Eileen glowered down upon her, twitching as if ready to squeeze her head out of her body with her own two hands. For this she was in her place emotionally. Her mission to make her die without her pride intact failed. In spite of it, Susie had nothing else to weaken her with.

The power of empathy was indeed a stronger one when falsified, especially for Susie.

"You really were my subordinate once..." said Eileen, handing one member a gun without breaking eye contact with Susie.

Two blue eyes opposing each other.

"...Do you have any idea how lucky you were when I chose you? Back when I made mistakes instead of classifying my ranks by their budding potential?"

Susie looked at the member with the gun. It was no different than looking at a robot. Fear has always been the one emotion strong enough to erase the rest of them. There was no likelihood, for Susie that trust had anything to do with it.

"I never knew making henchmen do your dirty work slipped as actually avoiding those same mistakes" said Susie jokingly.

Before Susie could redirect her gaze on Eileen, the member given the gun chuckled a bit. Then it started laughing before interrupting her attention. Susie couldn't say she was confused as much as disturbed when she looked back at Eileen's smile before returning to the same member.

"Ah, Pende inya! Hais linas fern!" said the member, puzzling Susie more than expected.

Eileen laid her hand on the member's shoulder to give Susie an idea of what she was about to explain. Susie herself knew the psychic ability never worked on most of the members wearing masks.

"Fluent Quenya elvish is the polish on this member's resume. That plus finishing you off alone equals enough to appoint him as my new subby." said Eileen, satisfied that Susie was listening to every word. "Improvement, Sue, it's all about improvement, not mistakes. Morton can fill you in on more once you meet him"

Eileen turned her back on Susie as she waited for the member to load the gun, if it knew how.

Susie could basically call herself empty on any other insight she might find to break whatever hint of pride there remained within Eileen. Perhaps one more peek at her thoughts could help Susie out on what there was left in Eileen to judge.

She closed her eyes as she heard the voices from within.

"Compared to this member...you were like a pet to me"

Susie opened her eyes again. She didn't want to speak immediately as she waited for something to enter her mind before she could utter a single phrase.

Her eyes expanded at the twist of fate that was her sudden idea.

"You may not get it, but I finally do: we're all pets...no..." said Susie, waiting for Eileen to turn back around. She only tilted her head towards the direction, which was good enough for Susie.

"We're all rodents! We're given a chip yet we renounce it for something bigger. Whether it's in our nature or not, we're all greedy, we all want something more, something no matter how hard we work for, is beyond our reach..."

Eileen could do anything she pleased as long as she was the dominatrix in Susie's chamber of instinctive submission. Denying Susie's logic was one thing she nearly failed to do. It was too late to completely do so after hearing the rest of Susie's elaboration.

"...So when we're finally given, we're too desperate to see how it was just karma in disguise"

Eileen could clap. There was a poetic honesty to Susie's words that Eileen tried not to overlook. Maybe she had instilled some wisdom as her boss before taking her down. What an honour it was for once to kill her rather than be the one killed.

The perfect way to accept one's untimely demise as far as she could ever see it.

"I agree with you on one thing: You **do** get it...you're the only dark horse left" said Eileen, giving Susie one last smile before facing the three members.

"Member A25, inform member A21 to discharge when ready"

Meanwhile, Calvin was only watching in a whirlpool of imbalanced emotions at the shared reactions between the boss, who he saw turned out to be a girl, and Sue.

He still knew nothing without the proper hearing device.

"Wait a minute..." he said to himself as he reached for his pocket. He took out two tiny earphones, along with Jeremy's supersonic apparatus from the first headquarters, and connected them both desperately.

It took him until now to remember them.

"Please work"

He returned his gaze to see one member aiming at point blank range towards Susie. Calvin wondered less for why it took longer than expected and used it to his advantage. He charged the Spiffweiser and got ready to aim.

Then the boss spoke.

"P.S., I **would** fancy Calvin...if I lived in a cave..." began the boss, in which she then says something to make Calvin hesitate for good.

"...and knew nothing about the fucking noodle incident!"

Calvin looked aside to speak to himself.

"The noodle incident..." asked Calvin, absorbing his epiphany to the finishing word. "If she's not talking about someone else...that means..."

"NÁRO!" yelled one member.

BAM!

Calvin saw the blood soar out of Susie as the bullet punctured her, an impulse bringing her ten feet down into the water.

Then, he witnessed as the blood lingered in the air. The rest of the world froze, but that very strand of fluid remained.

Finally, it spread into a giant blanket-like rainbow, aiming to cover the world.

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><em>


	19. Chapter 18: Waiting Long Enough

**Chapter 18: Waiting Long Enough**

Calvin couldn't believe what was happening. The world in obverse to him exploded into a growing rainbow that spread across the entire spherical volume of Calvin's location, morphing into a decidedly different one. Once the colors incarcerated Calvin's area from an entire 360 degrees, they morphed. The greens became the grass, reds the houses, blues the cars let alone part of the sky, it went on. They all took the form of a suburban area right in front of him, where the first thing he saw was a boy and his stuffed tiger. He was no longer hiding behind the bushes rather out in the open, where he started questioning things.

"What's going o-?" said Calvin, before looking at himself.

He was the same boy.

"Wait a second…" he said after seeing the stuffed tiger. It was all coming back to him for the most obscure reason. The memories of a life he forgot.

He looked to his left to see her towering before him.

"Sue?" he asked, before her voice interrupted him.

You know who I am...

Calvin didn't know she could read his mind. Then again, he didn't know what was going on at that point in time.

"What is this?" He asked, looking around once again.

Sue didn't reply. Instead, she disappeared, making Calvin turn around over and over.

This is what happens when someone represses their memory for too long. Anything can be lost, even if you don't intend it to.

Everything seemed so real, it was almost impossible that this was all occurring within Calvin's subconscious.

Introversion can be a real pain.

At the moment Calvin was losing his curiosity, he looked to his left to see a face he once thought lost forever from his knowledge.

A girl, about five, with dark brunette hair and in suspenders, stared directly at him.

"Susie Derkins?" asked Calvin, smiling with reminiscence.

"Huh, it's been a while since I remembered your name"

Calvin felt like looking at her eyes, wondering what she might look like today. But when he looked into them, his smile faded. His nostalgia became grim as the ultimate revelation became clear.

"No…" he said, shaking his head.

Susie shrugged, unable to smile even if he finally got the big picture.

"When someone truly cares, Calvin, they remind themselves" she said, though not in the normal voice a girl her age would have. It was the voice Calvin already knew.

"Sue?" asked Calvin, too surprised to avoid stating the obvious.

"**You**…were Susie Derkins all along?"

"I didn't think it was as incomprehensible as that promise you made me" she said with a hint of resentment.

Calvin couldn't repress anything anymore. Susie and Hobbes put him in his place, and so was he when he heard his own words

"Listen, as long as we find the Boss' one true flaw, I promise you…neither one of us is going to die, you know that, okay?"

Now was when the guilt hit Calvin hard. He never trusted Susie to the end to remember who he was rather than what he'd become, like Hobbes said.

His world melted back to the bush he masked himself in. One quote lingered before he saw everything again.  
><em><br>"In return, trust me: Defensively, it's never pointless to take a life"_

He knew she was right. The boss had no right to kill Susie even as she was prepared for it. Knowing its regiment, the boss most likely got to Jeremy and Ignatz as well.

All because he chose to be someone he was not.

Now Susie too was drowning in the waters she was swimming in, whether there was a pun intended or not. And all Calvin could feel was regret.

Regret for not having opened himself to Susie the way Jeremy clearly did, regret for stepping back at that kiss when she could easily tell he was ready but still felt like proving her wrong. Basically, regret for all the things he thought he didn't need to do.

Especially revenge.

"This explains everything…death frightened you until now, Susie…all because of me" said Calvin, grasping the Spiffweiser self-assuredly.

He still couldn't clench his eyes strong enough to incarcerate the two sole tears as they streamed down his face until reaching his chin. This happened even if he knew it would be over soon.

"High time I conquered my fear as well"

One tear managed to escape before he readied his aim once again. It landed on the gun.

After that, everything became concrete again.

Eileen treasured the moment she had to look down on the water. The other members stood there like British soldiers, keeping their emotions ignorant.

Except for one, who turned its head, as if having heard someone budge.

"Goodbye, Sub Sue. You're now Satan's problem" said Eileen as she walked to where her mask lay. The same member interrupted the other two's actions before they could escort Eileen.

"Dár!" said the one member, petrifying everyone else. It almost faced the same direction as Calvin.

"Le aphadar æn."

Calvin tried not to get distracted and aimed quickly before firing. As unknown as it seemed, he was somewhat fluent in many fictional languages, to the extent he even worked as an Elvish to Klingon translator throughout his time.

Just as Ignatz was proof of Douglas Adams' work bearing real fruit, so was Calvin as he felt as if the Babel fish posses him for so long.

Stop, you are being followed…

Everyone else, surprisingly, was more skeptical than ever. It was Eileen's job to see this had any meaning or not.

"What did it say?" she asked the member who supposedly understood that language. The member shrugged in unison.

"Beats me, I don't speak Sindarin" it replied.

Calvin couldn't hesitate a second further. He saw the four of them, perfectly poised for each of his barrels. He touched the trigger the moment the member yelled something.

"!UNDU!" yelled the member as it fell to the floor.

Down!

"Um…Mana?" asked the other member, before it happened.

Calvin knew this was the best time to test it. He simply pushed the trigger and jolted back from the unexpected momentum it released.

"Bereth nîn!" said the member lying on the ground at the last millisecond before giving one action far from anyone's prediction.  
><em> My queen!<em>  
>The member kicked Eileen's ankle, causing her to trip and fall on her back, eschewing the bullet by a hair.<p>

BAM!

As she fell, the bullet descended through the hole in her bangs before heading at normal speed towards the water.

The other two members landed a second after receiving the burst through the noggin. Dual splashes followed, in which Eileen began to look in confusion as to what occurred.

"Lathron Iluvátaregla!" yelled the member as it pulled a flare and stood back up, afterwards beginning to shoot into the bush. Calvin didn't have time to reload.

You damn eavesdropper!

One of the member's bullets managed to strike Calvin's shoulder, grazing him.

"Aaaah!" He screamed, clenching the wound whilst ducking from anymore upcoming bullets.

Throughout this whole occasion, Eileen didn't know what to do first. The member not only saved her life, it also divulged Calvin's hiding spot.

As she stood up, the member took out another magazine. Eileen really had the urge to thank it, one which wasn't going to go away.

Then she saw something she never noticed from the member as it shoved the load deep within the gun.

Its arm: It was completely bare, until a stream of blood came down.

"This won't do" said Calvin, revising the blood staining his hand from the shoulder wound. He gave a quick glimpse at his robotic arm and sighed.

"Seems fair"

Calvin wedged his index finger and thumb between the perfunctory wires of his wrist. He twisted them together before removing, in which his arm let out a wisp of steam.

After that, it detached painlessly.

"If this doesn't work, neither will the life of a lefty" He said to himself as he poked the arm out of the bush.

The member saw it and began shooting at an earlier range. It stopped halfway around the magazine when it heard the boss call. Calvin took advantage of its pause and crawled his way towards the next bush.

"That's more than enough, member!" yelled Eileen. "Good work, but I doubt he'd still be standing after the first round"

The member stood as motionless as a statue, as if Calvin managed to get to him after all. Eileen took one step; the member heard it at the tip of the ground.

"Avá careorme" said the member, holding his hand out from behind, motioning for Eileen to stand still as well. The gun was still aimed at that same bush.

Eileen scowled with mild frustration at that comment.

"Maybe you don't know by now but there's a reason why I asked that last member to translate all your gibberish" she replied, holding out her hand as well. "So unless you speak my language as well as you understand it, I'd like that gun back, please"

"Avá careorme!"

"Repeating it isn't going to translate it any further, give me back my gun, NOW!" yelled Eileen, waving her hand up and down, knowing the member could read her body language.

"AVÁ CAREORME!" it retaliated, loud yet firmer than Eileen. Eileen almost found the hostility inside its voice, so she countered it with her own.  
>"You're really falling under the impression this is the first time I've dealt with someone as such?" said Eileen, who now began walking towards the member's directions.<p>

"I did not turn my back on puberty for this! Either you give-"

Eileen didn't make it near enough to finish her sentence. Let alone grasp the member's pistol or invade its personal space. She was only a meter away from it when it turned towards her direction.

Around that time, it took hold of its hood and disclosed Guy Fawkes mask to utter something loud enough to shatter the sky. The first half of its statement sounded like its typically devilish monotone lowering in tone and losing static.

The second took the form of a boy whose voice became too deep for a ten year old's yet too high-pitched for a teenager's.

"I said **DON'T FUCKING MOVE**!"

Calvin browsed through the leaves to see what he was missing. He saw the boss, who was on the border of grim disgust. She had the kind of gaze that anyone who saw someone close to them get their guts splattered all over her face.

Then he saw the boy who aimed the gun at her now. He looked beaten with a face sweaty enough to highlight most of him, his blonde hair damp, and he wore a slightly angrier version of the same face the boss made. Calvin figured, however, that there wasn't anything the boss seemed to overlook about him.

Even without his glasses.

"Don't fucking move" restated Jason lightly, unrecognizable to the world.

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	20. Chapter 19: Truths Worth Hiding

**Chapter 19: Truths Worth Hiding  
><strong>

Susie sank deeper into the water, asleep in her own cocoon. She continued playing dead until she made it at least twelve yards down. By then, her operation began.

Her eyes opened and hands wriggled, easing out of the ropes binding her wrists. In between the loose knot was a broken toothpick, possibly a proxy for Susie's bobby pin.

_"…basic skill I mastered at youth was escaping handcuffs…"  
><em>  
>She reached for her feet and undid the yielding shackles there as well. It was only a matter of time before her 30 seconds were up, so she raced towards the surface. It was impossible for her to make too much noise when gasping her air upon reaching fresh air.<p>

When she did, however, there was too much darkness around her to really tell where she was. But maybe that was just her concentrating on getting her oxygen back. The fuzz soon cleared out after a couple of wheezes.

Out of nowhere, two bodies landed with a huge splash beside her. She didn't need to look quick to see the sinking faces of two members who had just been shot.

She made it underneath the pier.

She began swimming towards the only wedge of the pier that separated itself from land. Once on land, the panting could begin.

Nobody could believe she survived a bullet to the chest. She herself was exasperated from having to receive the blow towards the water all the way to reach here.

Susie panted as she waited for her energy to recharge. Her hand grasped some gooey red liquid emerging from the Kevlar envelope. Nobody would've guessed the cake's soap-like frosting would've made an indistinguishable substitute for blood.

"The truth is…Calvin…" she uttered alone, once there wasn't a need for panting anymore. The Kevlar envelope emerged from her chest as she reached for it to get in sight. On it was the bullet that nearly missed the bullet proof material.

She pinched the bullet and held it close to her face. It wasn't as sharp as a knife or as painful as fire, yet it could still cause damage. It was harder to believe now than never for her.

"…I was never afraid of death…until I saw you again"

She waited until the rain stopped to peek at the events.

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_Shortest chapter yet. But don't worry. What follows is the LONGEST chapter yet (and by long I mean longest to complete)._


	21. Chapter 20: Hell

**Chapter 20: Hell**

(Warning: This chapter's what you get when you watch too many angst-mongering loquacious animes and melodramatic Sean Penn vehicles.)_  
><em>_  
>Now I can't stay behind<br>Save me, from wreaking my vengeance  
>Upon you, to killing more than I can tell<br>Burning now I bring you Hell*_

The entire woods were nothing but an eerie atmosphere fading into darkness, one where Calvin could for some cosmic reason blend right in. His extemporaneous situation made him believe he was as ghostly as Hobbes. He never knew what it was like to be in anyone else's shoes, but his own.

If he did, he'd either be too petrified and confused to remember how to speak without forgetting how to pronounce grim inconvenience between the sharp taste that was lightweight yet catastrophic guilt and the painful threat onto his own existence; or he'd just be a rapt essence of begrudging hate directed at the former.

In other words, he'd either be Eileen or Jason.

"Don't fucking move" repeated Jason, in an almost distant whisper.

Eileen was pretty much living her worst fear at the moment. The member who was thought to be a young Elvish major revealed itself as the last person on the face of the planet to stretch this far and uncover a secret this big.

Not to mention play along as though it were easy sport. Calvin wasn't one to talk himself, nearly enjoying just how much of a sculpture Eileen had been reduced to.

"One revenge at a time, please" he calmly said to himself.

It was the tip of a void, and she hadn't even prepared a speech. Sure she was uncomfortable, but only seeing Jason without his trademark specs was the cherry on the icing of these seven layers of oblivion.

The gun was easier to spot than the anger swelling up in those electric blue eyes. Eyes which if weren't angry would be a marvel to look at for her.

"Is this the gun you used?" asked Jason, breaking the silence. Anything he'd say at that moment was guaranteed to make Eileen's skin gel up more than it already had.

"…Jason" replied Eileen, for the first time in between nervous hyperventilating and stuttering due to the discouragement. He fear made her too distracted to misunderstand the question.

"How did…how did you-?"

The beam of the night revealed how wet his face was, his forehead reflecting the moon, an underline of frustration, and even a smidgen of blood. All this seemed as if he'd emerged from the lake a few minutes ago.

And his wounded up façade like he'd swam all the way there from the other side.

"Is this the gun you used to kill Marcus? No, Marcus killed himself, did you know?" asked Jason, not even paying attention to Eileen's previous statement.

It was true; Marcus couldn't handle hiding this ordeal, so how was Eileen prepared to? Jason had shrunken the scale enough, topping any situation she'd been able to escape from now. The last thing on her mind was to answer Jason's questions, and maybe talk to him like the human he no longer saw her as.

"I…I didn't-" replied Eileen, more word that become another foot below ground she sank deeper into.

"Oh God, why now?"

"Is this the gun that was used on Morton?" asked Jason. By now, Eileen knew it was too painful to feel Jason's sympathy, so she rejected it all the same.

"I never did anything to Morton!" replied Eileen, assertively without losing her fear. Jason's face shifted into a big scowl when he pointed the gun close to Eileen's feet.

BAM!

"WHOA! WAIT! Wait! Wait!" Yelled Eileen, stumbling back a little as the bullet missed her by an inch. Jason threw in one big gasp as he proceeded interrogating her.

"Is this the gun you used on everybody, ON DENISE?!" asked Jason, punctuating the last two words with a wailing tone.

"Is this YOUR Gun?"

Jason finally gave way to the real issue that plagued his ability to reason. He knew everything, from who Eileen really was to what she did, so hiding it was futile.

And averting from it was twice as stupid.

"Jason!" Eileen said, spreading her palms out at him, trying to make an effort in this gruesome conundrum, some of it requiring her to look more at his face if she really wanted the opportunity to speak.

"Now…calm down…let's…"

"You're going to die" said Jason; a smiling presence was sordid amongst those words. It dropped Eileen to the lowest of her unnerving state.

"I don't want to make anything clearer than I ever have in my entire life, except that I loved Denise before you killed her...And that is that you're going to die"

All this could've been the trauma talking, that's what kept Eileen from believing him. She knew it was still Jason behind this rancorous stranger.

"Please! Just…just lower the gun…we can talk it out, okay?" asked Eileen, as if it would've made the slightest difference. Nothing seemed to sway him; he was more frozen than Data from Star Trek without his emotion chip.

"Jason? Please, listen to me! Just do me a solid…as a friend!"

Friend was the first thing that came to Eileen's head. It was also the last that Jason would take a glimpse at.

"You're not MY friend…not ever…"

"I know you don't really thing, I mean think, that way!" wailed Eileen, trying to recollect a reason in getting him to reflect differently.

"Above all we've been through"

The very words made Jason's head rumble. Not only did he fixate his aim better, he also walked closer to her in order to get a better scope.

"You mean all you put me though?" He replied, sounding more menacing than ever. The scowl that made up the wrinkles above his eyebrows almost resembled a vein popping out. Eileen always knew Jason was against her bothersome ploys he'd used on him in the past.

If she only knew he was set to take the scars they left him with to the grave.

"…Huh?"

There was no way Eileen could talk her way out of this. She wanted to please Jason without giving him the upper hand. She was not prepared to let him convince her she deserved this more than ever.

"Math tests…Math camp…POKEMON CARDS!" he replied, yelling when he saw she wasn't paying attention to him. Eileen had to look anywhere but his eyes, they were the real promise he was set to watch her die, not the gun.

"…Need a little more, Sergeant Neelie?"

This was an excuse for Eileen to muster. Jason was holding on to a grudge which she could both use to help Jason calm down by pointing it out. All that took was how disposed she was to face Jason no matter how high the risk was now.

But she was more aware than anyone how weak Jason was deep within. She just couldn't tell if anyone's weakness would work just as well, now that she wasn't hiding behind a middle earth subjugator's mask anymore.

"…You know what? Shoot me if you want, but you are in no position to hold me accountable for any of your misguided feelings!" she replied, somewhat aggressively. It never  
>made Jason budge, there had to be another way without having to say something truly penitent.<p>

"And I would never hurt you or any of your family!"

"Tell that to my BROTHER whose getting brought to trial as we speak!"

"He is? I thought we had…someone is going to pay for this…"

Jason contained his urge to smile. Not since the first time they met had he seen her this feeble. It was the first time he felt like she was surrendering her guard.

"How about you?" he replied, losing the angry vibe in favor of something more stern.

"Give it up, Eileen; I'm only here because this isn't anyone else' fault"

It was finally obvious. Even though Jason knew nothing about devaluing others both in mind and body, there was no stopping him now.

Killing her was not enough. He wanted to beat Eileen at her own game more than that, embezzle her kingship and violently discard the trophy in her face.

She would rather die than let that happen.

"Do you really want to play the blame game?" she replied, pretending her eye contact would change the rules as it did. She felt her strength growing back, as herself.

And the boss.

"Your entire life you've hated girls for no sound reason. All I did was try to help you see them in a whole new light! To make you like them just as any other guy by putting your girl hater reputation out of its misery! So what do I get in return? NOTHING! The invisibility treatment! WHOSE FAULT DO YOU THINK THAT IS?"

"Let's start with whoever didn't deliver what I ended up paying extra for by sacrificing the only person I'll ever love in this miserable planet!" retaliated Jason, refusing to allow her logic to relate to this in any other way.

Jason, of course, was talking about the day Eileen paid a visit to his room and changed her mind after making the startling discovery. The consequences were almost getting a hold of her.

_"You thought you were the only dark horse in this video game you reminded me was life. Everyone competes; most don't even know it, like his brother's ex when he first fancied her!"_

But Eileen always had a way with true judgment. It was one of the many aspects that gave her the title of high boss. It was in her nature to use counterarguments disguised as rational compassion.

"I couldn't go with that same plot because it might've taken us down another road! I was walking on cracked ice, but I knew it was safer to let you call the hits, no matter what I was hiding behind my back! What reason did you have to keep your secret? Huh?"

"I DIDN'T WANT TO FUCK UP AGAIN! GOD! DAMMIT!" yelled Jason, almost releasing both his temper and the one event he didn't want Eileen to remember.

Not like this. Eileen could only look at him with cloying confusion.

"…What are you on about?" she asked, no longer pretending she was only teasing Jason.

Jason violently bit his upper lip. He knew she'd forgotten almost every bad event that left him forsaken in unnecessary guilt. It wouldn't be a big deal if he opened up to her this easily.

"It's none of your concern! Denise treated me with a friendlier vibe that changed my perception of her kind. She was someone like me: outgoing, visually impaired, and aware I wasn't playing hard to get! The perfect introduction to what the opposite gender could hold if given the chance. And for the first time in my life, I genuinely wanted to!" said Jason, making it seem as if he didn't need the gun anymore to weaken Eileen's intentions.

Only as she knew that was when it actually worked.

"For what? She was six years older than you! It's not like it would've worked out if you'd told her! You had to wake up one day!" she yelled, stretching her arms up. Then she dropped her surprised act and pointed one hand and him.

"But what do I know? Past that gun, it's obvious to us your vocabulary has done the opposite of save you in the past; that's what made you an easier target than the one I am now"

Jason almost felt offended and breached in from that remark. Maybe she was reading his mind as they spoke. He wouldn't know what to do with that kind of power in his way.

And somehow, he had to find one.

"Oh?" asked Jason, getting closer to her, hoping his gat's proximity would keep her fearing.

"How then…have the tables turned…if all I had to guide me was her memory?"

He knew it never worked. Eileen was never afraid of the gun, rather than of Jason himself, until he gave way to his confusion. This soon became a Mexican standoff now that she had the answers to Jason's enigmas, something twice powerful as a gun.

"Because as smart as you think you are, you're trying to be too much like her" said Eileen, letting her guard down in order to provide real advice.

"What I mean is…love doesn't have to be blind"

Neither of them knew the clouds had surrounded the hemisphere enough to substitute for darkness. Not until little droplets of rain and vague thunder began unfettering.

As Eileen distracted herself in replying something legitimately true, Jason took the chance to let his mind think of a way to surmount her psychic attitude before it returned. Only one idea came into his head before he hid it and went on with his reply.

_She reads what I say before speaking it._

He found this idea useful for the time being. But in order for it to work, he had to find out why. This way, it was easier to hide by forgetting it completely.

"Is it any different, no, better, than being you?" he replied, emphasizing his scowl to distract Eileen from as much of his next thought as possible. Not that it meant she still feared him whatsoever.

"You killed Denise"

The droplets soon grew to fully fledged rain, beginning to dampen each others' clothing. It still didn't matter; Jason was stripped of any obstacles that came his way.

"And you still want to avenge her" she replied, now crossing her arms. She expected him to know better and lower the gun, so she couldn't help but find this immature.  
><strong><br>**"At least I mind my own bullshit" Jason said, making it seem as if she'd object this arrogance and use it against her.

"It beats acting half your age when you can use twice your intellect!" she replied, now agitated.

It was then that Jason knew how to get to her. By comparing her to the one person she hated, it might cause a severe meltdown. But Jason's upper lip twitched in an attempt to smile, so he bit it one more time.

_Why compare her myself?_

"FINE! BUT AM I THE ONE WHO ABUSED THIS DIVISION THROUGH FEAROCRATIC METHODS THE SAME WAY I PSYCHOLOGICALLY ABUSED ANYBODY WHO ONLY WANTED TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN PACE IN LIFE?!" yelled Jason, sliding the gun out of the way, knowing it would help Eileen instinctively explode as her way of giving an equal response.

And instinctively explode she did.

"I DON'T KNOW! AM I THE ONE WHO SLAUGHTERED HER TIME AND AGE PINING FOR SOMEONE THAT NEVER LOVED ME BACK NO MATTER HOW MUCH I THOUGHT OF THEM WHILST IGNORING ANY RATIONAL WAKEUP CALL THAT CAME MY WAY?!"

Bare silence.

The woods echoed her voice, reminding them of that setting. Those words seemed to stir in Jason, who was now dangling the gun to his side, no longer set to fire it. She couldn't tell if he was about to reply, or if he even wanted to.

She tried opening her mind to see if he thought otherwise.

_That's…right…Who's laughing now?…Quote Evil Dead._

Eileen scowled in confusion. That's when Jason gave a light but continuous chuckle, making blithe of a serious threat. The perfect opposite of a reaction she was laughed without making it seem loud. It went on long enough to take Eileen into retracing her words. Almost louder than the crackling rain that drenched them both entirely.

_…Quote Evil Dead…_

She gasped.

The shock weakened her. Her legs knelt down sideways, touching the moist surface. All this time she thought herself the one reading his mind.

In reality, Jason made her read her own.

_" …AM I THE ONE WHO SLAUGHTERED HER TIME AND AGE PINING FOR SOMEONE THAT NEVER LOVED ME BACK NO MATTER HOW MUCH I THOUGHT OF THEM WHILST IGNORING ANY-"_

"N…no…I…I…" she stammered as she tried to deny it. It was far too late after the pieces melded together effortlessly.

**_Q_**_uote…**E**vil…**D**ead…_

Eileen was more speechless than she'd ever been that night, or her entire life. She had just surrendered her own common sense to Jason by acknowledging the very inattentiveness she used to snap back at him.

Jason stopped laughing. He took a step nearer to look at her in the closest view he could get. She never dared spy at the enlightened satisfaction that was pure victory, as if he'd waited long enough for this occasion.

Something else made her look up.

Jason towered over her crippled stature, wearing a weak smile. His visage still outpaced the white highlights given by the rain, mingling with the silhouette on the quarter of his face. The rain revealed some of the moistened gore that now streamed down from his hair, covering the whole middle.

He did it. He made her eat her words instead of wasting a bullet.

"Quite an experience, regret, isn't it?" He asked, not hiding any sympathy in his words. Broken apart, Eileen still detected the scorn ridicule used to power that compassion. For that, Jason continued to remind her who was the one who ought to have been looked down upon.

"That's what it is to stand on a pier and miss the boat"

Eileen sternly frowned as she dropped her head. She knew the rain would do a great job at hiding the punishment she was now enduring.

She understood the metaphor, having once been in Jason's place, with him vice versa. When she did it, she wanted to make sure it started something she never knew how to control. For this reason Jason wanted to finish it.

He wanted to kill what Eileen was too afraid to let go of after so long. Wondering if Jason was set to take this payback beyond the last benchmark was pointless by now.

Jason knelt down to get a better eye level from her. Her eyes met his when he took her hands and wedged the now rusty pistol between her toughened palms. She wondered, now more than before, if this angrily confident and fearsome boy was the same sensitive, girl hating Gollum she used to rib.

"But…why?" she moaned bleakly, clutching the gun.

"After all I DID...not tried…DID…why…why would you do this to me?"

The rain was slowly waning. All Jason wanted from her was to accept her own inanity by steering her clear of the boss' chair. He knew she wasn't any different than him, but she didn't.

Jason gave an exasperated sigh before going on to read what Eileen overlooked between the lines.

"Oh Eileen...I wouldn't have done this to anyone else even if they deserved it **more**" he began. His words became a flashback for both of them.

"You asked me why I kept my love for her a secret…"

Eileen looked firmly into his eyes. She felt his invisible hand grasp her chin into seeing the unquestionable logic.

Jason always knew she was smarter than him, but even he knew better than to make business a personal matter.

"On the day you made me declare my soft spot for you, I thought I could live a normal life in spite of it. I didn't think for a kid my age, I'd be…compelled to choose between you and my untimely hatred towards females. Obviously you wouldn't let me have both, so you know what it came down to, didn't you?"

The rain stopped. Calvin was picking something out between his teeth once the quarrel between the two started to bore him. He didn't know how this would end but saw everything else coming. He had no say in this; it was all déjà vu for him.

"That's right, neither! Why bring any other girl into this?" Jason continued excitedly, knowing Eileen would never try at a rhetorical question anymore.

"Denise never made me decide! Denise didn't afflict me knowing it was impossible! Denise never forced me into adulthood expecting me to tag along! YOU DID! And after you figured that out, I…I still BESEECHED you to cope, I pleaded my life, I begged for your clemency…but you left me…left me like I was as useless as you saw the apologies or earnest attempts I made to change…That's why!"

Jason didn't want to add anymore. He dropped the load he never knew was carried for quite a while now. It was the perfect moment for him. He was at peace with himself. Now he could stand up and begin walking.

For Eileen, it was too much. This was a reception to the eternal penitence of all her sins.

"But…" she said weakly, four steps within Jason's path.

"I thought we'd moved past that…forgotten…as friends…"

Eileen didn't know if she was finished. She wanted to add more, but couldn't. Jason took it from there as usual.

"Only one of us chose to move on with their lives, Eileen…and right now…"

This was when Calvin woke up. He faced towards Jason's direction awaiting the remaining fragments of his words. Jason could make Eileen swallow her words, but what about his?

Once thing was déjà vu, the other was an honest pickpocket._  
><em>_  
>"Only one of us chose to move on with their lives, Susie…and right now…"<em>

"It's good to see that was me" said Jason.

With that said, he resumed his slow stride.

In spite of the intriguing history lesson, Calvin assumed he'd detached his arm in vain. He expected more from what he only saw was a chew out against two kids that tried weighing out each others' IQs with disregard of their irrepressible emotions.

Neither of them seemed to care he was still behind the bushes the whole time. He almost forgot to hoist his weapon when he got up. He grabbed hold after finding it.

BAM!

"AAAAH!"

Calvin heard both sounds, neither of which came from him. Luckily, his remaining hand was grasping the Spiffweiser throughout this sudden ignominy. He peeked past the bushes again.

Jason was kneeling in pain, blood dripped from a puncture in his ankle. Eileen was in the same hopeless position since he left her. The shadow of the night covered her face, especially the eyes.

The only part that was in a different position was her hand, wielding the smoldering gun straight at its victim.

"Teachers don't count in this rank of authority we live in" she said, loud enough for only Jason to hear.

"The police and private investigators are barely there. Above them is the CIA, DEA, FBI, whatever! And above them is the one who calls the highest shots, the good lord"

Jason turned to see her stand up. Her face still drooped, concealing the growing hatred in her vision. This wasn't up to him anymore as the bullet might've even pierced his bone this time.

It was hard enough digging out the slug Marcus endowed him.

"In between God and all those secret services lays a "reserved for Jason" sign" she continued, now walking towards Jason's post.

She walked to overrun his personal space. She walked until Jason could spot the face she'd probably never wanted him to.

The same begrudging face he sported before she accidentally surrendered.

"Do you have any fucking idea how hard it was to PUT YOU THERE?!"

The words that came from Eileen had never been yelled this hard in the history between the two. Jason didn't expect the gun to be of any use to either one.

"I raised this division up from the ancient soils for nothing; my high hopes are in the mist of time now, lost with your ability to care even the slightest for me no matter how hard I teach you!"

Calvin grasped the Spiffweiser once more. Should Eileen choose to let Jason go down and keep the crown, the Bilk Division would bring forth a new world war guaranteed to be the last.

There was a fire that radiated in her eyes, in her scowl, that would've turned him to stone if she directed them at him.

"If I were like you Jason, so obsessed with grudges, you'd be exactly the way you are compared to my status! I didn't need The Bilk Division to heal me from your aggressive insults, your careless poems or that unspeakable virus you spread claiming you never loved me! They didn't exist until I saw Denise's face in your room!"

Jason couldn't keep his distance from her. The more he moved, the more his ankle stormed with enough jolts to keep it paralyzed from the waist down.

This allowed her to reach less than a foot away from him.

"You and I could've been so much more than a love/hate relationship that's run its course. Ever since I saw you kissing up to her, I was out of options past denying it, pretending you'd change"

Eileen aimed the gun at Jason's forehead. She could no longer control the urge to follow her instincts the same way she did when Jason fooled her. The Bilk Division taught her something video games could never encourage:

If you wanted something done right, do it the hard way

"All I wanted was your benevolent compassion, not your ability to forgive me…" she said angrily, thinking Jason might take this chance to reply. Once again, her prospects were pointed too far up from their mark.

"…Looks like I never deserved either one"

The gun ultimately touched the surface of his sweaty forehead.

Jason's face was nearly frozen, leaving Eileen with enough confidence to perform the ultimate crime. She knew it was impossible to be the boss without eliminating any expressive luggage in her way, even if she needed it to fuel her desires.

_…This can't be the indecision he had to endure._

Eileen hesitated some more, realizing she never could have her cake and eat it too. Either she shot Jason and continued as the boss or she gave up the boss' title and Jason's victory all the same.

Out of nowhere, a ghostly Susie stood next to her.

_"...we're all greedy, we all want something more, something no matter how hard we work for, is beyond our reach...So when we're finally given, we're too desperate to see how it was just karma in disguise"_

Susie was more right than ever.

Sue was set to kill anyone like she'd done before, that's why Eileen hired her as the key assassin for the Division's name to be worth fearing, and that's why they preferred to call it the sect. Meanwhile, Jason, in the same vein as Calvin, grew tired of waiting.

They both eventually gave in to each others' true longings.

When Eileen looked back at Jason, his eyes were closed. He was also smiling, even if he knew the barrel was still poking at his head. Eileen's own eyes, in comparison, were a bomb that soon exploded after taking its time.

He could not see her, and yet she still had the bullet set to go through.

Eileen's lower jaw dropped when she made it to the final straw. If Jason really wanted to be like her, she'd be dead as well. Instead, he disregarded her for his true desire.

Calvin lowered the Spiffweiser at the sight of Eileen's alternating moves.

The gun that almost poked Jason's forehead trembled as it slowly made its shift. Eileen clenched every part of her face after the barrel rotated to enclose the tip of her chin. Her teeth revealed a greater mixture of all the regret she'd ever feel in her life.

"All thanks to that...blind bitch...it had to go this far!" she uttered, clenching the gun, trying to bury her fingernails into it. Jason once more chuckled mockingly; his unopened eyes still making him think the gun remained directed at him.

She looked down at him one more time before landing her index finger on the small trigger. Deep within her, she knew it would all come down to this. In spite of it, she still found it better in a situation where someone else would take her down instead of herself.

It was too typical.

_My tears…have never stopped falling…since that day…_

The looseness of the trigger was heavier than it seemed. Eileen was on the edge of a cliff this time. Nothing mattered in this world anymore, and if it did, she surely wouldn't be missed, Jason made that real. Her eyes couldn't clench any tighter and freed one dense tear down her face.

It landed on the barrel.

After hearing her last sentence, the picture came to mind. Calvin reached for his shirt pocket to find any paper thin object he might've hoisted. He found it, the image of a girl that distracted his failure when Susie and he lost their moment.

Eileen was seconds from pushing the trigger all the way down. She was not beyond sure there was such thing as real happiness, nor was there any possible chance of obtaining it for herself or for anyone else.

A whistling sound interrupted all of this.

Eileen opened her eyes and looked forward. She squinted her eyes to spot what she made out was Calvin. He seemed to be holding a small card which she quickly made out.

_Her!_

That's when she quickly took the gun out of her face and stretched it at him. The trigger lost 99 percent of its weight as she quickly pulled it.

BAM!

The photo flew right out of his hand, leaving her to aim at Calvin alone. Eileen knew this was the last bullet and quickly slipped out another magazine and clicked it into the compartment.

_"…Defensively…"_

Around the same time, Calvin stood there watching her, as if she hoped to kill him. She aimed back at him and pulled the trigger. One second before, Calvin emerged the Spiffweiser, with half of the barrels missing, from the bushes._  
><em>_  
>"…it's never pointless to take a life"<em>

The two bullets emerged at the same time Eileen's sole blast was released, creating an explosively unstable sound Jason almost couldn't distinguish. When he opened his eyes, she was a loud splashing sound came.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

*Disturbed, _Hell (The Lost Children)_

_And so, there you have it! The chapter that started the rest of this story. No seriously, this story came from two ideas that made me want to write it in the first place: lingering grudge of having removed Denise from the series 2. The thought that ever since Eileen came into the strip, we started seeing less and less of her (even though she sort of did remove the spotlight after making it in). But hey, if James Cameron came up with The Terminator from just dreaming about a cyborg walking through the flames, why can't I?  
><em>


	22. Chapter 21: Set Fire to the Rain

**Chapter 21: Set Fire to the Rain**

"…I was never afraid of death…until I saw you again" said Susie before she heard one final splash.

Looking at the edge of the pillars below, Eileen could see two things. One was the Sauron mask, sinking faster due to the weight.

Next was a hand, faintly reaching up, before it too disappeared into the depth.

Susie knew who it was and felt the triumph belonged to Calvin. She walked a few steps up and peered above the rim, without divulging her presence.

Jason opened his eyes. He lay motionless there, not knowing what to do. His instincts told him to stand up and walk away, but there were persistent doubts that made him wait.

"Am I dead?" he asked himself.

"That you wish" replied Calvin.

Jason turned around. He was shocked to see a guy with one arm missing make his way towards him.

"It's you" Jason said, looking at Calvin in a way that made him wish he could move.

Calvin continued walking until he could see the coagulated blood that once dripped from the bullet wound. Susie had heard and seen the boss take the final dip and was now spying on the two underneath the dock.

"Do you **want** to die, Jason Fox?" asked Calvin, sticking his hand into his coat. Jason was sure he'd reveal the weapon meant to exact what everyone has been trying to succumb to all this night.

"For…what I did to your friend?" he asked. Jason saw half the card Calvin revealed from his coat.

"Go on right ahead. This cycle of hatred will never end until one of us is dead"

Jason thought he was as confident as he looked. And just like any great assumption, it was cruising to be proven wrong. Calvin took the card right out.

"Who said I was going to kill you?" he asked. Jason couldn't help but detect a slightly more boasted enunciation on that "I", taking his smile away altogether. Calvin lengthened the card towards Jason's face, giving him time to read it.

"I didn't, I only implied that" replied Jason, looking first at him then back at the slice of construction paper he clutched.

"What's that?"

"Before I saw this, I also thought vengeance was the only option for those who deserved it" he began.

"You, however, think death is never enough, don't you? You seem to have more in common with her than you give credit for"

"What?! Don't compare me to Eileen! I don't kill people just to prove my love for-"

Jason stopped his own words. He nearly forgot about what he did to Susie after Eileen ordered him to take her down on the spot.

"Okay, I'm sorry but your friend had it coming! She was the boss' ex subordinate! The least I could do was a favor to all those innocent members that died under her blade!"

"She never deserved it any more than us!" yelled Calvin, getting unnerved by Jason's attitude.

"But if you still disagree, this is bound to change your mind"

"Wait Calvin! Don't give it to him!" yelled another voice.

Both Calvin and Jason turned to the side of the pier to notice the other character that had emerged from below their standing point. Susie stood a few feet away from them, many times wetter yet just as thrilled.

Calvin immediately dropped the card and looked at her as if it was the first time.

"Susie" he said evenly, unable to release his real surprise at the sight of her this way "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

She didn't forget she was initially pronounced dead, but it almost swayed from her how confusing it might've been around the time she was shot.

The bullet went through more than just Kevlar apparently.

Oh right!" she said, taking out the empty envelope from the spot it still rested "Before you ask, this was red frosting shredding out of the envelope, not blood"

After Susie finished, she was surprisingly comprised by Calvin's eagerness. She didn't know whether to hug him back but still cherished this spontaneous feeling, one she hadn't felt in a long time.

He looked at her. Seeing her face made the moment more real than any other one he'd ever had. Her breathing identity stimulated him into a world of comfort he never thought existed.

"I can't believe it's really you, after so long!" He replied, no longer containing his smile. Susie was also glad of this, although somewhat surprised after finding out he was missing an arm.

"You were right! About everything! I'm sorry I doubted you!"

Susie looked back at his face. She could tell he wouldn't want any harm to come to her now that they both knew each other's identities.

"Don't be, I was wrong too, I should've told you everything from the start" she replied, breaking away from the hug for a moment.

She was speaking drastically at the moment, under the belief that he might have any hard feelings in spite of knowing who she was now. Apparently, Calvin was still too grateful to have her both alive and here to care about the technical aspects."It's okay, the years were mean to both of us, but now, we're together again, and I'm just okay with that" he replied, trying to keep his eyes on her without declining her serious tone.

Susie smiled again, knowing they deserved another moment of optimism.

"Me too, I never knew how much I missed you"

"Only when someone entrusts you to remember, without any reminders, do they truly care"

"I know"

Calvin looked deeper into her eyes. They both knew how much this moment exploded deep within them now that they were together again. Susie herself wanted Calvin to show her the love that they'd concealed but were too cynical to even speak. Nothing arbitrated within their paths now as their faces stood less than an inch apart, and their eyes closing.

Nothing but Jason's hold on the card Calvin dropped a minute ago.

"Wait! I don't think you should open that!" said Calvin, breaking away from Susie, who also directed her attention at the other guy.

Jason shot a humorous tude at Calvin as he slid the card aside so it wouldn't obstruct his view.

"What? This? It's just a love letter. Even if it's the last, that's not going to make it the first" he replied.

"Are you sure?"

"I've gotten plenty more from her, not one has ever changed my mind of her"

Calvin wasn't so sure about this. All he knew was that the card seemed to sway him enough to reconsider killing Eileen himself. Although he did it anyway, there was no telling how valuable it could've been if it was purely meant for Jason.

Calvin ultimately decided to trust Jason, going out on a limb here. If Jason was capable of defeating Eileen internally, there wasn't a chance a surprise attack would barely scratch him. Calvin looked back at Susie, who shrugged at first.

_I'd steer clear of it, but if it's no skin off his bones, why not?_

Calvin shot his gaze back at Jason.

"Suit yourself" he replied.

Jason nodded as if prepped to open a present. He looked closely at the card, which had letters written on it in a cartoonish font. On the bottom was a photorealistic drawing of an Xbox 360 controller, while the top read: "This may be a joystick…"

Jason would never confess he was excited, but he almost had to give her credit. One couldn't stop hoping what a big deal this would be if it was their last work.

Jason opened the card.

The first half read "…but you're a joy STICKING with." In elvish lettering, featuring a stick figure version of Eileen, hugging Jason, who was holding the same controller. Jason couldn't help but groan at this, even though his true feelings would've made him awe.

Next he noticed the other half where in cursive, read on the bottom "I hope this is enough for Riviablo" and followed with her signed Initials. He almost imagined a Hallmark logo when he checked the back of the card. In spite of the effort put into this, Jason's expectations were precisely met.

As if Eileen wasn't trying to be anything but honest this time. It was naïve of Calvin, whom almost thought this was going to hurt him in any way.

"That's it? Ha! Please! I thought she really had the hots for me this-" said Jason before he turned towards the couple's direction.

Susie and Calvin were making out. Their eyes were closed but everything else was wide open, no longer keeping their urges contained. And between this, they were still standing up. Normally, Jason would've pretend gagged at a simple kiss on the cheek.

"-time"

He watched them. He could go as far as let his grin fall, confused as to what to feel. Or maybe it wasn't confusion. For so long, Jason didn't know how comfortable he'd be if he just gave in to those sentiments. If he just stopped kidding himself and called it denial, it would all be more comfortable. But he wasn't comfortable upon carrying this lump.

A lump he should've faced long ago, one that said there wasn't anything wrong with loving someone.

"Sorry, did you say something?" asked Susie, pausing from the flash.

Jason didn't know how to reply. He took the card again and examined it. The very lump he expected to be gone by now didn't budge. It only moved to his stomach, churning it around.

The idea of them kissing really troubled him. With this, Calvin still wanted to make sure it had nothing to do with the card.

"Are you okay, Jason?" he asked.

It would only be harder for him if he hid it more and more. The feeling that he was so sure, which was almost aping that of finding himself at the presence of Denise, wasn't going to go away.

"I…don't know" replied Jason, telling himself he could say better than that.

"…I'm…starting to think she DID love me…"

This somewhat offended Susie. She was not going to let the past's confusion get in the way of this moment, even if it would change Jason's self-esteem for the best.

"Starting?" she asked sarcastically, enough to make Jason heed her more due to the potential anger. "She wanted me dead because of you! What are you saying?"

"I don't know!" said Jason, raising his arms up only to bring them back down. There was one detail from the card that he forgot to analyze.

"What's this? "Riviablo"?"

The couple also replied with a puzzled gaze. Suddenly, Susie's eyes flashed open before reaching into her back pocket.

"OH" she said, taking the gift card into view and handing it to Jason.

"THIS was attached to that sentence; hopefully the water didn't damage it much"

Jason took hold of the card. It was a Gamestop gift card, worth over sixty dollars. He looked at it and connected it with the space above the last signed sentences. He read it again.

"I hope this is enough for _Riviablo_"

"Gamestop?" Jason asked himself, before he put the last piece together "Hold on…Marcus must've told her…about-"

"Riviablo: Realms of Requiem? Yeah, it just came out today!" Calvin interrupted, who already knew what it was about from the get go. He expected Jason to be more excited about the idea, even if his leg was still badly wounded.

"Wow…that was awfully…nice…she really cared after all…" said Jason, almost at a loss of words, and ideas. He sighed, knowing this wasn't as painful to acknowledge as he thought it was.

Normally, anyone from The Bilk Division could simply pirate a game even before it went through post-production. Eileen was the boss, and she preferred to see patience less like an obstacle and more like the virtue it was.

It shouldn't have been a surprise for him, people did change. The romance behind this introduced Jason to the guilt he no longer resisted.

"…I can't believe it...This was all a huge mistake…oh God…"

Calvin could already see the sadness swelling up in Jason's face. For so long, Jason thought he had more feelings for Denise than he'd ever consider for Eileen if they weren't even. With both of them dead now, the scale started to give a sounder rematch.

Of course, Calvin knew it could be worse. If Jason knew what he did, there wouldn't be any doubt about it. He had to hide the possibility with the greatest weapon used that night: empathy.

"I think her weakness was meant for you" said Calvin, walking towards the probably miserable teen.

"If it's of any help, we didn't find anything else"

Jason directed his view back to Calvin. He retaliated the feeling by looking into his eyes. They were nothing except blue to him; a sincere cornea proved he wasn't pulling any strings.

It was during Jason's effort to smile when he heard it echo.

_"Only when someone entrusts you to remember, without any reminders, do they truly…"_

Jason placed his attention back at the card, reaching around it as if there were a cheat code decoded within the markings. Calvin almost thought there might've been words in elvish he didn't understand.

"When…was she planning on giving me this?" asked Jason, sounding more anxious than he was before.

The rain was coming back as they refused to let this debate go. This time, thunder accompanied it.

Calvin was afraid of what would happen if he told the truth. Twisting it would be considered lying, but misleading him without truly compressing it was never fibbing as long as you knew how to hide the important part.

"I think…you're birthday" he went out on a limb, waiting for Jason to fully buy it.

The scowl, along with his eyes squinting and his head recoiling a bit, said he didn't. Neither did Susie, who never managed to know what was written on the card either.

"My…BIRTHDAY? Really?" replied Jason, confused enough to look at the card as if the idea was even less likely than he'd expect. Sure Eileen was predictable, but that didn't mean she'd dare to be bland as well.

"Yeah, how did you know?" asked Susie, almost equally as bothered.

Susie made Calvin see how the likelihood of revealing the clear cut message could be, unless he was too afraid to tell it all. She deserved, more than anything, the facts as they were, now that she was willing to stand by him again after so long.

He really wanted to hide it, but he couldn't. He promised himself to be more honest to Susie, no matter what it took.

"I didn't, I only implied that" said Calvin, refusing to drop the bewildered act.

"When we took the envelope out, on that empty gray space inside the cake, it read "Don't forget, August 13", making me suspect-"

Calvin couldn't continue as he didn't need to. Jason's face said he heard enough. First his jaw dropped, and then his eyes seemingly wanted to pop out. Then he started wheezing for air, like the perfect asthma attack if not having one.

Soon his spirit was possessed head to toe by denial. It was amazing how potent it would be to his perception. He couldn't even come to a decision anymore.

To think both Calvin and he knew regret before.

"No…NO…NOO!..." he screeched, shaking his head aggressively, as if desiring to punch the boards out of the pier. It went on like that, stronger but with a higher manner in his already juvenile pitch.

"NOOOOOHOHOHOOOOOO!"

Susie didn't know what to do now that Calvin did enough. She tried reading his mind like she'd done a couple of times, hoping to find legible words.

Instead, she found a picturesque flashback of him, still disguised as a member, paying a visit to someone.

_"Just so you know" screamed Charlie._

"Vengeance doesn't always represent death!"

Jason stopped on his tracks yet again, giving Charlie another slight grin. He turned around and walked back to Charlie's spot.

_He stopped once he was standing on the same place where they initially met eye to eye._

_"What do you mean?" He asked._

_Charlie could've tricked Jason into walking through a maze of logical decisions that would change his mind. That's what he used to do when he was too young to trick his own classmates in recognizing the darker, irreparable side of life that could never be cured._

_Now he just wanted to imply they wouldn't need to before it was too late._

"There's no inclination to the path of spite, as longs as it's performed for the same intentions" he said.

_"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves. Matt 7:15"  
><em>  
><em>Jason tilted its head as Charlie quoted the scripture. The last thing he wanted was to deal with a religious fanatic.<em>

"Bible verses, eh?" Jason replied "Newsflash, I'm not even going to kill it"

"That's right! You're off to do something worse"

"What's worse than giving one death?"

_Charlie leaned forward for Jason, making him pay extra focus to this, assuming he could see him enough._

_"Giving one a reason to allow it"  
><em>  
><em>Jason could've fulfilled Charlie's wish to stray away from his initial plan. That would've meant not even Charlie knew better by now. The only way he could give ripe food for thought was by replacing his words with humor.<em>

_That's why he never stopped smiling._

"In that case, I lied, I WAS planning on killing it" said Jason as he twirled back around and walked away from him.

_"Thanks for giving me the better idea"_

_Charlie laughed quietly as he watched Jason meet his expectations._

_"Why thank me? Once this is over, you'll be the only one left to blame" bellowed Charlie before Jason walked far enough to get concealed by the tip-off from the urban sprawl.  
><em>  
><em>He almost felt sorry for him.<em>

The flashback disappeared in a fade to white into the real location. It was hard to believe, there wasn't a chance of penetrating Jason's mind unless they did it physically.

But looking at him was depressing enough. Even with the rain Susie could tell he was crying amongst the constant head shaking and loud utters of simple decadence.

"Is…that it?" asked Susie, who looked back at Calvin with a blast of doubt before directing her attention back at Jason. She still had to know, even if he was in great pain.

"August 13, is that your birthday?"

Jason tried to awaken from his tantrum to look at the couple. Seeing them together immediately represented the love he refused to take and would never have.

They knew what they wanted, even when it was right in front of them the whole time. This could've been Eileen and him happily instead of separated by useless desires. One desire, however, did come true for Jason._  
><em>_  
>"You and I could've been so much more than a lovehate relationship that's run its course…"_

"It…" said Jason, trying not to stammer when shaking restlessly. He looked up at the sky dejectedly. The card she made, representing her real feelings, and now his, deteriorated in the dampness. He knew it was all the same in the real world too. When she was alive, he knew neither one of them had any choice whatsoever.

_"…when someone entrusts you to remember, without any reminders, do they truly care"_

Jason knew he'd only love Eileen when she was dead.

"…It WAS HER'S!"

With that said, he broke apart with the rain, accepting eternal blame. Susie and Calvin didn't know what to do. Even as it was over, there was so much healing that remained to be seen. Susie couldn't stand to see Jason sob his eyes out, even when she was convinced how he caused Eileen to commit suicide.

She never suspected it was Calvin who did it to exact default retribution after what she supposedly did to her. In reality, Calvin didn't know this himself. There was nothing they could do. Jason continued to weep, throughout dawn.

And much after the storm diminished.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()


	23. Epilogue: One Day

**Epilogue: One Day  
><strong>

Not far from Mystic River was there another pier which found itself to feel nearly parallel to the one half a mile away from it. It was there that the sun's hint of dawn began to illuminate tomorrow in order to give way to the new day.

Before it could even get there, the water below the pier bubbled up and eventually splashed its way into the dock until a person formed in the shape of the high boss Eileen Jacobson.

She hacked and coughed her way into the damp ground until making it somewhere she could rest.

Let alone look back at where she once placed her hope on.

"One day, you **will** deserve me" she said, before walking off into an unforseen location.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_Done._


End file.
